Delhi HC says Kejriwal, Sisodia plea on ‘Phansi Ghar’ not maintainable

Justice Sachin Datta made the remark after the Assembly panel’s counsel sought adjournment, saying he was engaged in another case before the SC.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday remarked the petition by former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia challenging the summons issued to them in connection with the controversial “Phansi Ghar” (gallows chamber) is “prima facie not maintainable”.

The AAP leaders claimed the summons were issued without due procedure and were “wholly extraneous to legislative privilege.” (Shutterstock)

A bench of justice Sachin Datta made the observation after the Delhi Assembly Privileges Committee’s counsel, Jayant Mehta, questioned the petition’s maintainability and sought that the hearing be deferred to the next day, citing his engagement in another matter before the Supreme Court.

However, Kejriwal and Sisodia’s lawyer Shadan Farasat opposed the argument and said that the committee did not have the jurisdiction to issue the notice.

The next hearing of the matter has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The issue snowballed into a controversy after the current speaker, Vijender Gupta earlier this year had dismissed the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s claims that the room, which in 2022 was converted into a memorial honouring “martyrs”, had been used by the British to hang freedom fighters.

The site featured murals of revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, a symbolic hanging rope, and red-brick heritage-style walls. A plaque credited to Kejriwal and the then speaker Ram Niwas Goel, and carried an inscription that read: “Innumerable unknown freedom fighters have been hanged here”.

Gupta, during the monsoon session this August, had presented building maps showing that the chamber was, in fact, a service shaft or tiffin lift area, not a gallows. Following his disclosure, the area was renamed the “Tiffin Room”, and the plaque and symbolic elements were removed.

The committee, on November 4, issued summons to four AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, and asked them to appear on November 13 to verify the authenticity of “Phansi Ghar,” which they had restored and inaugurated in the previous term.

In its petition, AAP leaders had termed the notices as “wholly extraneous to legislative privilege” and said that the same were passed without following any procedure.

It went on to add that the committee’s reference for verifying the authenticity of “Phansi Ghar” was beyond the remit of the Delhi legislative assembly and especially of its privileges committee, since the acts and omissions of the 7th tenure of the Assembly could not be inquired by way of privilege by the 8th tenure of the assembly.

The committee, the petition filed through advocate Talha Abdul Rehman further stated, does not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the authenticity of the existence of Phansi Ghar, which had been taken into account by the previous Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

It went on to add that the summons were issued by the committee without taking into consideration the leader’s reply filed in response to the September notice, wherein they were asked to file their comments on Phaansi Ghar inaugurated in the Delhi Assembly premises.