NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday sought the response of the Centre and the AAP government on a plea by the Assembly Speaker seeking to vacate a stay on breach of privilege proceedings against the PWD secretary for allegedly misleading a house panel on the issue of de-silting of drains.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar also issued notice to the office of Lieutenant Governor, PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar and the legislative assembly’s Committee of Privileges (CoP) which had initiated proceedings against the bureaucrat.
Senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for Speaker Ram Niwas Goyal, argued that the Speaker’s powers cannot be challenged in a court of law and the high court’s order staying the breach of privilege proceedings initiated by CoP should be vacated.
He said the question is that legislature’s proceedings cannot be interfered by the high court and submitted that the matter involved two branches of the state which must be resolved.
He sought an early hearing in the matter which was listed for November 8.
