Kutty misled HC in illegal appointments in DNSBL: Dy Speaker

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The Deputy Speaker of Delhi Assembly today alleged that Chief Secretary M M Kutty "misled" the High Court in a matter related to alleged illegal appointments and promotions in the Delhi Nagrik Sehkari Bank Ltd (DNSBL).
Deputy Speaker Rakhi Bidlan, who is also the chairperson of the Questions and References Committee of the Assembly, said with no one representing the Legislative Assembly, the matter was decided by the court "in favour" of the chief secretary.
"On Monday, the chief secretary had to appear before the Questions and Reference Committee with the action taken report on the issue that involves the Department of Cooperative Society.

"This date was fixed acceding to his request for more time only. But three days ahead of the meeting, he (Kutty) managed to take a stay from the High Court with untruthful submissions," said Bidlan said in a statement.
She added that it was brought to the notice of the committee that Kutty had a meeting scheduled in the PMO around the same time.
"So, to make sure that he (Kutty) finds it convenient to attend the meeting, the meeting of the Committee was re- scheduled to 4.00 pm instead of 3.00 pm.

"Apparently, this fact was misrepresented by the chief secretary before the high court as grant of mere one hour by the committee, in lieu of 10 days time that he had asked for," the statement said.

Another AAP MLA Sourabh Bharadwaj alleged that over the past few months there have been a number of instances where Delhi government's counsel were not allowed to present its stand in the court.
According to the statement issued by deputy speaker, the committee has decided to request the Speaker to take all necessary measures in an appropriate manner to ensure that this perceived "encroachment" on part of the judiciary into the legislative domain in gross violation of constitutional scheme of separation of powers is halted forthwith.
Yesterday, the Delhi High Court had dubbed as "unreasonable" the act of the Questions and Reference Committee initiating contempt proceedings against Kutty without considering his request for more time to respond to a show cause notice.