CS Anshu Prakash claims in HC : House panel proceedings against me premeditated

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the entire process of summoning him before a privileges committee of the Delhi Assembly for questioning over certain issues was "biased" and "premeditated".

The submission on behalf of Prakash was made before Justice Vibhu Bakhru. He commenced hearing of final arguments on the plea challenging the summons issued to Prakash by the Assembly's Privileges Committee on a reference made by the Question and Reference Committee. 

The entire process was malafide, biased and premeditated, said senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate Vivek Chib, appearing for the bureaucrat. 

The lawyers argued that bias in the proceedings was evident from the fact that same members were there in both the committees. After hearing brief submissions on behalf of Prakash, the court listed the matter for further arguments on November 27. 

Apart from the chief secretary, the Privileges Committee had served notices on two other IAS officers -- J B Singh, Registrar of Cooperative Societies, and Shurbir Singh, chief executive officer of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. 

Both of them have also challenged the notices and summons issued to them and their pleas are also tagged with that of Prakash. 

The Assembly has opposed the pleas by contending that the court does not have the jurisdiction to look into the committee proceedings and that the petitions were premature at this stage. 

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 -- Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal. 

The court had earlier expressed displeasure with the panel for not completing its breach of privilege proceedings against the chief secretary despite questioning him for over four hours.
 
The high court on July 24 had told Prakash that he was "adequately protected" against any punishment by the Assembly committee. 

It had said that its order of July 13 was "expressly clear" that he would have to participate in the proceedings before the Privileges Committee 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 Privileges Committee 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.