Privilege Proceedings against CS : Legislative panel’s delay annoys HC

 New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure with a Delhi Legislative Assembly Committee, comprising AAP legislators, for not completing its breach of privilege proceedings against Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash despite questioning him for over four hours.

"He has admittedly appeared before you (Committee of Privileges) for four hours. What kind of proceedings are these? In four hours of questioning, you would have known what you have to do. 

If you have not completed your proceedings within this time, we will not allow it to go forward now," Justice Vibhu Bakhru initially said. 

After senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, appearing for the committee, said the officer's presence was not required for now, the judge made it clear "no further hearing shall be scheduled" by the panel till September 18, the next date of hearing. 

The court also noted that in view of the statement made by the senior lawyer, the apprehensions of the bureaucrat "does not survive." 

Prakash, represented by senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate Vivek Chib, said in his plea that despite repeated requests, the verbatim and video recordings of the proceedings had not been provided to him. 

He claimed that without the records, he cannot defend himself against the charges of breach of privilege. 

Nandrajog, appearing for the committee, said the verbatim records would be provided to the official as soon as it is authorised by the Speaker, who is in London and is expected to return on September 16. 

He said the video records of the proceedings would be filed in court before the next date of hearing on September 18. 

The court, thereafter, directed that the video records of the proceedings before the committee on July 27 and August 20 this year be placed before the next date of hearing. 

In the application filed through advocates Ruchira Goel and Asif Ahmed, Prakash urged the court to put on hold the proceedings before the committee till it provided him with the records. 

He claimed that the committee had assured in the court that it would provide him with verbatim and video records of the proceedings. 

The High Court on July 24 had told Prakash that he was "adequately protected" against any punishment by the Assembly committee. 

The court had said that its order of July 13 was "expressly clear" that he would have to participate in the proceedings before the Committee of Privileges (CoP) and if any punishment was imposed on him, it would not be implemented till his plea against the panel's notice to him was decided. 

The CoP had issued him a notice on a complaint by the Question and Reference (Q&R) Committee of the Assembly. 

The High Court had on March 9 asked the panels not to take coercive steps against the IAS officers. The Chief Secretary was earlier served a notice by the Privileges Committee for skipping a meeting on February 20, which was scheduled a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs -- Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal. 

The Privileges Committee had issued the notice after receiving a complaint against the chief secretary by the Q&R Committee. 

This panel had also served notice on two IAS officers -- J B Singh, Registrar of Cooperative Societies, and Shurbir Singh, chief executive officer of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board