Plea in HC against holding session outside Assembly withdrawn

The Delhi HC termed the plea as pre-mature, as no decision was taken so far by the LG

A petition seeking to restrain AAP-led government from holding special assembly session in a stadium to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill was today withdrawn after the Delhi High Court termed it as "pre-mature" on the ground that no such decision has been taken so far by the LG.

"The petitioner seeks permission to withdraw the petition as no direction has been issued so far by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on holding session outside precincts of present Vidhan Sabha," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul said.

The court, however, granted liberty to Delhi University professor Kedar Kumar Mandal to approach it again if "the need arises to do so".

Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Delhi Government, however, opposed the liberty granted to Mandal to move the court again on the issue, saying the court "should not or cannot enter into this domain as the decision is directly in the hands of the council of ministers and the LG, who acts as per the advice of the council of ministers".

He also said that so far no such decision has been taken to hold the session outside the assembly building and the submission that holding of such session of assembly will cause huge expense is also not correct.

While disposing off the petition, the bench said though the petition is "pre-mature" at this stage but there are many questions such as "can LG decide to hold such a session in Goa. There has to be a reason for holding such a session outside the designated place. We can deal with such issues at a later stage when need arises."

The high court had yesterday sought information from the Delhi government by today on any provision that allows transaction of legislative business outside the House.