The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Centre to respond to a plea by Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot challenging a provision which requires State government Ministers, including the Chief Minister, to seek political clearances from the Centre for foreign visits.
Justice Yashwant Varma also asked the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, Union of India through Ministries of External Affairs, Finance and Home Affairs to file their counter affidavits in response to the petition filed in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being denied permission to visit Singapore for the 8th World Cities’ Summit from July 31 to August 7.
The High Court has posted the case for further hearing on January 23 next year.
‘Abuse of discretion’
The petition stated that this was not the first instance of such “abuse of discretion” and mentioned that the Chief Minister was previously denied permission to attend the C-40 World Mayors’ Summit in Copenhagen in 2019. Even, Mr. Gahlot had requested for clearance to visit London on an invitation but there was no response from the Centre till the time the request became infructuous.
Mr. Gahlot has sought issuance of guidelines to channel and guide the implementation of several office memoranda issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, empowering the Centre to grant or deny permission to State government Ministers for foreign visits in their official capacity.
He said all these visits were on invitation and were crucial for exchanging ideas on improving urban governance and showcasing Delhi’s own progress in urban design. He said the alleged draconian manner in which the Central authorities have used their discretion on travel clearances has only exacerbated further by the fact that even personal visits by State government Ministers must be cleared by them.
It said as per one of the office memorandums issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, clearances are required from the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the relevant Central Administrative Ministry and once these clearances are obtained, for visits involving a Chief Minister, a final clearance from the Prime Minister Office is required.
“The whimsical and capricious manner in which travel clearances for State Ministers are treated is prejudicial not just to the interests of good urban governance in this case, but also national interests in global platforms generally,” the plea said.
It submitted that there appears to be no prima facie reason or basis for denial of clearances for this particular visit to Singapore, making the action of the authorities manifestly arbitrary and without any evident discernible principle.
