Chief secretary Anshu Prakash in court again against fresh panel notice

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash on Wednesday approached the Delhi high court again, challenging a fresh notice issued by a committee of Delhi Legislative Assembly seeking his appearance on Thursday.
After the counsel for the top bureaucrat mentioned the matter before it, a bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar listed the plea for Thursday before a single judge.
Prakash has questioned the notice issued by the assembly’s question and reference committee. His counsel Vivek Chib submitted that despite giving an undertaking before the court on March 5 that the committee will not proceed in the matter concerning the chief secretary, a fresh notice has been served upon him.
The Delhi assembly had on March 5 assured the high court that it would not take any coercive action against the chief secretary for skipping meetings called by the privileges committee and told the court that the privilege notice issued to Prakash has been deferred till further orders.
The bureaucrat had challenged the privileges committee notice directing him to appear before it for skipping a meeting on February 20, which was scheduled a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two AAP MLAs, both of whom are now in jail. Prakash also did not attend the subsequent meetings on February 21 and 23, following which the notice was issued on March 1.
In his plea, Prakash had submitted that he was “summoned to appear before the privileges committee for inquiry without being provided any copy of the complaint or opportunity to respond to the same”.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher had issued the notice and sought response from the ministry of home affairs, the lieutenant governor, the AAP government, the office of the Delhi assembly speaker, its privileges committee and the question and reference committee in two weeks.
The CS sought quashing of the notice issued to him by the committee and said that he has a right to free and fair investigation. Prakash also said he was asked to appear before the committee, which had MLA Amanatullah Khan as one of its members.