Gahlot also sought a direction for framing guidelines and quashing the LG’s letter advising against Kejriwal’s proposed visit to Singapore. (File Photo)After Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not able to visit Singapore for the World Cities Summit owing to a lack of clearance from the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot approached Delhi High Court Monday challenging the central government instruction requiring state government ministers to seek prior political clearance for their foreign visits. He also alleged that the use of discretion in such travel clearances is “draconian”.
Gahlot also sought a direction for framing guidelines and quashing the LG’s letter advising against Kejriwal’s proposed visit to Singapore. “This has become a much larger issue. What is the nature of this kind of denial of clearance? Is it completely unfettered? Is it not reviewable? See this case – On June 7, I write to the learned L-G. No reply for a month because we all know how to make things infructuous,” senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Gahlot, said.
Justice Yashwant Varma said that the petition “may have raised certain issues” but the relief is claimed for personal visits. “The visits which are being spoken are difficult to be understood as personal visits,” observed the court.
Singhvi responded that it is for both personal and official visits. “We are challenging all because guidelines have to be laid before you exercise a pocket veto. This amounts to a pocket veto in the sense that by doing nothing you are exercising a veto and by rejecting you are exercising a veto,” he said.
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The court asked Gahlot’s counsel to file an additional affidavit regarding instances of personal visits and listed the case for further hearing on August 22.
Gahlot in the petition said that the chief minister was previously also denied permission to attend the C-40 World Mayors’ Summit in Copenhagen in 2019. “The petitioner, who holds the portfolio of transport in the council of minister(s), Government of NCT of Delhi, had also requested clearance to visit London on the invitation of Transport for London but shockingly, there was not even a response from the concerned authorities in the central government till the time the request became infructuous,” reads the plea.
The petition states that all these visits were on invitation and crucial for exchanging ideas on improving urban governance and showcasing Delhi’s own progress in urban design. “The draconian manner in which the respondents have used their discretion on travel clearances is only exacerbated further by the fact that even personal visits by state government ministers must be cleared by the respondents,” Gahlot said in the plea.
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First published on: 01-08-2022 at 02:11:46 pm