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PIL dismissed

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation challenging grant of accommodation, cars and secretarial staff to non-official members of the New Delhi Municipal Council in violation of rules framed under the NDMC Act.

Dismissing the petition, filed by a former employee of the civic body, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar said: “There are sufficient internal checks and audit mechanisms under the NDMC Act to ensure that the expenditure by the civic body on the grant of facilities to its non-official members is for the purpose envisaged under the Act.”

On its power of judicial review of cases involving a challenge to decisions of statutory bodies having financial implications, the High Court said its power was limited.

The petitioner also failed to lay any factual foundation to show that the expenditure incurred by the NDMC on the grant of facilities to its non-official members other than allowances for attending meetings was beyond the prescribed norms or arbitrary or excessive or unreasonable.

The petitioner, C. L. Devgun, had urged the Court to direct the civic body to withdraw the facilities being given to these members.

He had argued that the rules say non-official members are entitled to only an allowance of Rs.1,000 per meeting for attending meetings of the Council and telephone with free calls worth Rs.2,000 per month but the civic body had allotted them Type IV or V residential accommodation in the Capital’s upmarket Golf Links area and office accommodations in Palika Kendra.

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