HC to hear plea to declare Delhi's winter session illegal

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday posted for January 19 the hearing on a petition to declare the two-day Assembly Winter Session of the city government as "illegal and invalid".

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Ashutosh Kumar listed the plea for Thursday after Advocate R.P. Luthra mentioned the petition before it.

The advocate said that as per Section 19(1) of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Rules, at the commencement of the first session of each year, the Lieutenant Governor shall address the assembly.

But the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not invite newly-appointed Lt. Governor Anil Baijal and thus dishonoured its office, the advocate said in the petition.

The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday witnessed vociferous protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the two-day session not commencing with the LG's address.

The Delhi government, however, maintained that it was a session in continuation of the fourth session of the Delhi Assembly, which had not been prorogued.

--IANS

gt/nir/dg