Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the entire process of summoning him before a Privileges Committee of the Assembly for questioning over certain issues was “biased and premeditated”.
The submission on behalf of Mr. Prakash was made before Justice Vibhu Bakhru. He commenced hearing of final arguments on the plea challenging the summons issued to Mr. Prakash by the Delhi Assembly’s Privileges Committee on a reference made by the Question and Reference Committee.
“The entire process was mala fide, biased and premeditated,” said senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate Vivek Chib, appearing for the bureaucrat.
The lawyers argued that bias in proceedings was evident from the fact that both committees had the same members. After hearing brief submissions on behalf of Mr. Prakash, the court listed the matter for further arguments on November 27.
Notices to IAS officers
Apart from the Chief Secretary, the Privileges Committee had served notices on two other IAS officers — Cooperative Societies Registrar J.B. Singh and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board Chief Executive Officer Shurbir Singh.
Both of them have also challenged the notices and summons issued to them, and their pleas are also tagged with that of Mr. Prakash. The Assembly has opposed the pleas contending that the court does not have the jurisdiction to look into committee proceedings and that the petitions were premature at this stage.
Mr. Prakash had moved the High Court in March this year after he was served a notice by the Privileges Committee for skipping a meeting on February 20. The meeting, in which he was asked to appear, was scheduled a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs .
The court had earlier expressed displeasure over the panel not completing its breach of privilege proceedings against Mr. Prakash despite questioning him for nearly four hours. The court had on July 24 told Mr. Prakash that he was “adequately protected” against any punishment by the Assembly committee.
