New Delhi: The AAP government on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that Chief Minister Atishi, who holds the finance portfolio, has sent the CAG reports related to liquor duty, pollution and finance to the Lieutenant Governor for placing before the state assembly. The counsel for the Delhi government, however, clarified he did not have formal written instructions on this and sought time to place on record the developments in the matter.
“I have oral instructions that the finance minister (Delhi Chief Minister Atishi) has forwarded the files to the LG. But I will not make any statement unless I get it in writing from them,” said senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, representing the Delhi government.
Lieutenant Governor’s counsel said 10 files were received by the LG office on the night of December 11 to place them before the legislative assembly.
The court granted time to the counsel for the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor to file their affidavits on the subsequent developments and posted the hearing on December 16.
The assembly session was over on December 4.
The petition has been filed by leader of opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan.
They have contended the government was acting in breach of its statutory duty by failing to “promptly” lay crucial Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports on various issues such as pollution and liquor before the assembly.
In its reply, the CAG said eight reports pertaining to Delhi were pending with the city government for laying before the legislative assembly in accordance with the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act.
The CAG has said according to the legal framework, the Delhi government has to place the audit reports submitted by it before the assembly and it has in the past written to the principal secretary (finance), requesting him to do the same.
According to the response, reports from 2022 to 2024 pertain to finance audits, air pollution, “revenue, economic, social and general sector and PSUs”, children in need of care and protection, liquor and public health.
On October 29, the high court issued notices to the Delhi government, the office of the assembly speaker, the LG, the CAG and the accountant general (audit), Delhi, and sought their responses to the petition.
The plea claimed the 12 CAG reports from 2017-2018 to 2021-2022 were pending with Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, who also holds the finance portfolio.
The plea alleged that despite the LG’s repeated requests, these reports were sent to him for tabling before the assembly.
The petition, filed by advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain, said the BJP MLAs approached the chief minister, chief secretary and speaker in the past but no action was taken.
“Despite the LG’s repeated requests and constitutional obligation, these reports were not sent to the LG and consequently, could not be tabled in the Delhi Legislative Assembly,” it said.
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