HC agrees to hear today plea of Delhi CS challenging breach of privilege notice

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday agreed to hear Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash’s plea challenging a breach of privilege notice issued to him for skipping a meeting called by the panel. The matter was mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar which directed that it be listed before an appropriate bench for hearing today itself.

Advocate Vivek Chib, appearing for the chief secretary, sought quashing of the notice and submitted that Prakash was summoned to appear before the privilege committee for inquiry without being provided any copy of the complaint or opportunity to respond to the same.

The panel had on February 21 recommended privilege proceedings against the chief secretary (CS) for contempt of the House after he skipped the meeting called by the committee. A committee of the Delhi Assembly yesterday accused Prakash of “lying” before the high court with regard to the breach of privilege notice.

Members of the Question and Reference Committee said that they would also initiate “forgery proceedings” against Prakash for misinforming the court. An AAP MLA had on Sunday said, “We have learnt that the CS has moved the High Court challenging the breach of privilege notice served to him by accusing us of arm-twisting him in a matter related to attack on him, but he is hiding the fact that the meeting was related to rising NPAs.”

“The committee members challenge the CS to stick to the contents of his affidavit and not alter these contents. The chief secretary is clearly trying to shield those involved in the multi-crore scam, which appears to be on the lines of the Punjab National Bank scam,” the committee had said in a statement.