Jung appoints committee to examine over 400 files containing irregularities

Delhi's Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung today constituted a three member committee to examine irregularities and infirmities in about 400 files which have been submitted to him on the orders of the Delhi High Court.

The members of the committee are V.K. Shunglu, Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, N. Gopalaswami, Former Chief Election Commissioner and Pradeep Kumar, Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner.

After the high court's judgment, on August 8 and again on August 23, Principal Secretaries/HODs of GNCTD were directed to review instances where prior approval of the Lt. Governor was required as per rules but was not obtained, and to place all such matters before him.

In response, about 400 files have been received from GNCTD for Ex-Post Facto Approval of the Lt. Governor and some more files are awaited.

On preliminary scrutiny of these files, it is found that over the last one-and-half-years several decisions taken are in violation of Acts/Rules with attendant legal and financial implications. It has become necessary to examine them in depth and suggest forward action. Therefore, the committee has been constituted.

The Committee shall broadly:

a) Determine whether the decisions taken in these files and the processes adopted were in violation of the Acts/Rules and the constitutional scheme for Governance of GNCT of Delhi.

b) Determine whether such violations were wrong, illegal and deliberate acts of omissions/commissions.

c) Examine the role played by the Public Functionaries/Officers of the GNCT of Delhi and of any other individual related with these violations and fix responsibility.

d) Recommend appropriate administrative/criminal/civil action as well as action for recovery of financial loss to Government exchequer, if any, by such wrong decisions against the public functionaries/officers/individuals concerned.

e) Recommend course of action to be taken on each of the files/proposals including whether the decisions can or cannot be regularized by the Lt. Governor.

f) Outline the administrative, legal and financial repercussions of the regularization/non-regularization of the decisions as in (e) above.

g) Make any other recommendation relevant in the above context including further inquiry in specific cases.

The committee has been requested to submit its interim reports and recommendations to the Lt. Governor from time to time and to submit the final report within six weeks of the first meeting.