Govt, Assembly panels can’t act on drain desilting

The Delhi government and two panels of the Legislative Assembly were restrained by the Delhi High Court on Saturday from taking any coercive steps in connection with the issue of desilting of city drains.

The direction by a bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar came on the plea of Delhi Chief Secretary MM Kutty, claiming he was being threatened with contempt of the House for not giving a report on desilting that “suited the requirements” of the Delhi government.

The court stayed a June 29 report of the Assembly’s Committee on petitions, which said there was misrepresentation of facts before it by Public Work Department (PWD) officials in connection with desilting of drains.

The bench also put on hold a July 3 resolution of the Assembly accepting the panel’s report and referring it to the Committee on Privileges for initiating privilege proceedings. The court also stayed a August 3 note sent by the PWD minister to the chief secretary in which it was allegedly observed that the report submitted by him with regard to work done by PWD officials for desilting the drains was “evasive and unsatisfactory”.

In its four-page interim order, the bench directed that “there shall be …read more