Delhi Chief Secy moves HC against fresh breach of privilege proceedings by Assembly

Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on Tuesday moved the high court here challenging the fresh breach of privilege proceedings initiated against him by the Assembly on complaints by two of its committees.

The plea was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao which allowed it to be listed for hearing on Wednesday.

The petition has sought setting aside of the breach of privilege proceedings initiated by the Assembly's Privileges Committee based on complaints by the Question and Reference Committee (QRC) and the Protocol Committee.

The chief secretary's plea has also challenged the complaints made against him by the QRC and Protocol Committee.

He has contended that the breach of privilege proceedings initiated against him based on the two complaints were "violative of the Constitution of India as well as the Rules of the House and therefore, illegal and unconstitutional".

The petition also seeks quashing of the Speaker's decision to refer the two complaints to the Privileges Committee, saying it too was in violation of the Constitution and Rules of the House.

Apart from his latest petition, the chief secretary had in the past challenged breach of privilege proceedings initiated against him early this year by the Assembly panels for not appearing before them.

The earlier petition is at the final arguments stage and is scheduled to be heard next on November 27.

During the hearing on his earlier plea, Prakash had claimed that the entire process of summoning him before a privileges committee for questioning over certain issues was "biased" and "premeditated".

Prakash had filed the earlier plea in March this year after he was served a notice by the Privileges Committee for skipping a meeting on February 20.

The meeting, in which he was asked to appear, was scheduled a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs -- Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

The court had earlier expressed displeasure with the panel for not completing its breach of privilege proceedings against the chief secretary despite questioning him for over four hours.

The Privileges Committee had issued him a notice on a complaint by the QRC.