Unfortunate Delhi govt dragged feet: HC

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Delhi High Court on Monday said CAG reports over city administration should have been promptly placed before the assembly for discussion and the state government “dragging its feet” on the issue raised “doubts on its bonafides”.
Justice Sachin Datta, who was hearing a petition by the opposition MLAs from BJP, asked if the court could direct the speaker, having the “prerogative”, to call a sitting of the assembly when elections were around the corner.
“The way you dragged your feet raises doubts about your bonafides.. You should have promptly forwarded the reports to the speaker for having a discussion on the floor of the assembly,” the court said.
The judge went on, “You have dragged your feet to avoid having a discussion.. See the number of dates you held onto the report, and the time taken to send them to the LG, and then forwarding it to the speaker…The timeline is stark. See the way you have been dragging your feet is something that is unfortunate.” Opposition leader Vijender Gupta and BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan filed the petition last year and sought a direction to the speaker to call a sitting of the assembly for the purpose of tabling the CAG (comptroller and auditor general) reports.
Senior counsel for the government raised an objection over the “political” nature of the petition, and alleged the LG office made the reports public and shared it with newspapers.
“How does it matter?” asked the court. (PTI)