Kejriwal, Sisodia move Delhi HC against assembly summons in ‘Phansi Ghar’ row

The row erupted earlier this year after current Speaker Vijender Gupta dismissed the previous AAP government’s claim that a room in the Assembly complex had once been used by the British to hang freedom fighters.

Former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia have moved the Delhi High Court challenging the summons issued by the Delhi Assembly’s privileges committee in connection with the “Phansi Ghar” (gallows chamber) controversy.

The plea claimed that the committee issued the latest summons without considering the leaders’ earlier replies to a September notice seeking their comments on the memorial. (HT archive)

The row erupted earlier this year after current Speaker Vijender Gupta dismissed the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s claim that a room in the Assembly complex had once been used by the British to hang freedom fighters.

In 2022, AAP had a memorial built there, featuring murals of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, a symbolic hanging rope, and red-brick heritage-style walls. A plaque credited to Kejriwal and then Speaker Ram Niwas Goel bore the inscription: “Innumerable unknown freedom fighters have been hanged here”.

During the monsoon session this August, Gupta presented old building maps to assert that the chamber was a service shaft or tiffin lift area, not a gallows. He renamed the space as “Tiffin Room”, and the plaque as well as the symbolic installations were removed.

On November 4, the privileges committee summoned four AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, asking them to appear on November 13 to “verify the authenticity” of the Phansi Ghar memorial they had inaugurated during their previous term.

In their petition before the high court, which will be heard by justice Sachin Datta on Tuesday, the AAP leaders have termed the summons “wholly extraneous to legislative privilege” and argued that they were issued without following due procedure.

They contended that the committee’s move to verify the authenticity of the Phansi Ghar was beyond the powers of the Delhi assembly, and especially of its privileges committee, since acts of the previous (7th) Assembly cannot be examined by the present (8th) Assembly.

The petition, filed through advocate Talha Abdul Rehman, stated that the committee “lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate on the authenticity of the Phansi Ghar,” which had already been approved by then Speaker and deputy Speaker.

“The initiation of fresh proceedings in 2025 to examine a 2022 event is barred by legislative discontinuity. The event in the previous Vidhan Sabha was part of the Speaker’s administrative prerogative. There are no allegations of contempt, obstruction, or breach of privilege,” the plea said.

It also claimed that the committee issued the latest summons without considering the leaders’ earlier replies to a September notice seeking their comments on the memorial.

“The entire proceeding constitutes an arbitrary and disproportionate use of the assembly’s coercive powers, wasting public time and resources on a matter with no bearing on the current governance of Delhi and extraneous to the constitutional mandate of the privileges committee,” the petition stated.