Delhi HC refuses to restrain govt from going ahead with 2-day Assembly Session

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to give hearing on a plea seeking to restrain AAP government from going ahead with its two-day Winter Session of Assembly which has already commenced.

"It is the prerogative of the Speaker to call a session. How can the court interfere in it," a bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar said.

The plea for urgent hearing today was mentioned before the bench through advocate R P Luthra who urged the court to declare the two-day Assembly Session as "illegal and invalid".

The bench, however, did not list the matter for today, saying "you (petitioner) file the petition. It will come up tomorrow."

The petition claimed that by not inviting the Lieutenant Governor to address the Delhi Legislative Assembly, the AAP government was "dishonouring" its office.

It further said rules stipulated that at the commencement of the first session of each year, the LG shall address the House. "This rule is being honoured since the formation of the Delhi Assembly. But the present government has chosen to circumvent the rules," the plea said.

Yesterday when the sixth segment of the ongoing fourth session of the Assembly commenced, Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta objected to it saying by not inviting new Lt Governor Anil Baijal to address the "first session of the year", the government has "violated and misused" rules.

He quoted section 19(1) of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Rules that stipulates that at the commencement of the first Session of each year, the L-G shall address the House and claimed "the present government has chosen to circumvent the rules."

However, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel rejected Gupta's charge, saying this sitting was "not a new session in a new calendar year but continuation of an ongoing one. I want to warn you against dragging the name of LG based on a misleading claims."