BJP MLAs move Delhi High Court (again) alleging delay by AAP government in tabling CAG reports

Seven Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly have moved a petition before the Delhi High Court questioning the delay by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government in placing 14 reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) before the State Assembly..As per the petition, the Delhi government has delayed forwarding the CAG reports by around 490 days now. When the matter was heard this morning, the Court sharply criticised the Delhi government for this delay. After the matter was taken up again in the afternoon, Justice Sachin Datta sought some clarity on Legislative Assembly procedures, including what prorogation of an assembly session entails, when the Delhi Assembly was prorogued last, what an assembly session means, and the difference between prorogation and dissolution of the legislative assembly. The case has been listed for further hearing on January 16. .The petition before the Court has been filed by seven BJP MLAs, namely, Vijender Gupta, Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, and Jitender Mahajan.The BJP MLAs have called for the CAG reports to be forwarded to the Assembly Speaker and for a special assembly sitting to be held to discuss and deliberate on these reports.The petition has been filed through advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain.The Chief Minister of Delhi (CM), the Lieutenant General of Delhi (LG), the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the CAG have been made parties. .Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethamalani represented the BJP MLAs today and argued that the petitioners were seeking the fulfilment of a constitutional mandate. He pointed out that the CAG’s duties are given under Articles 149 and Article 151 of the Constitution and added, "This is the basic feature of parliamentary democracy.”.“So the position now is even if with some delay, the CAG reports have been forwarded to the Speaker and you want to have a session immediately by mandamus," Justice Datta observed during the hearing today. .Last month, the High Court had disposed of a plea raising similar concerns about the delays in tabling CAG reports before the Delhi Legislative Assembly.At the time, the Delhi LG's office had submitted that the LG had approved the CAG reports and that all that was left to be done was for the government to table them before the Assembly. The LG's office had also submitted that the CAG reports had been lying with the Chief Minister's office for an inordinate amount of time before it had finally been sent to the LG for approval in December.The Delhi government, in turn, had assured that the CAG reports would be forwarded to the Speaker so that it is tabled before the Assembly within two or three days.The Court had recorded these assurances in an order dated December 16, 2024, and closed the plea.However, it had added that the petitioners may resort to appropriate legal proceedings if further delays arise..Since the CAG reports are yet to be tabled, the BJP MLAs approached the High Court again for relief.When this new plea was initially heard on December 24, the Delhi government, represented by Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra, informed that CM Atishi had already written to the Legislative Assembly's Secretary seeking a suitable date to table one CAG report on "Performance Audit Report on Children in Need of Care and Protection." The other CAG reports would follow suit soon, the Court was told at the time.The matter was thereafter posted on January 9. .The LG's office then filed an affidavit dated January 3, in which it submitted that the AAP government was "not ceasing in their delay tactics." The Secretary of the Legislative Assembly also filed a short reply, in which he submitted that the tabling of CAG reports is meant for detailed scrutiny and examination by the Assembly on such reports, and not to make the same publicly available. It added that no purpose would be served by tabling these reports now, and that it may be better for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) formed after the upcoming Delhi elections to examine these reports. "There does not exist a situation wherein the Parliament and/or State Assemblies have called for a special session for the sole purpose of laying the report of the CAG," added the January 7 affidavit filed through additional standing counsel for the Delhi government advocate Udit Malik. .The matter will be heard next on January 16.