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Faisal Farooq bail plea: HC asks police lawyer to produce L-G permission
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday said the stay granted on the release of Faisal Farooq, principal of Rajdhani School who was booked in connection with
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday said the stay granted on the release of Faisal Farooq, principal of Rajdhani School who was booked in connection with the northeast Delhi riots, would be “vacated”, if the police’s lawyer does not produce the permission granted to him by Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal to challenge the bail granted to Farooq.
The court also said that the DCP, legal cell does not have the power to appoint a lawyer to represent the police without approval of the higher authorities.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait said the counsel, who had filed the plea, has not shown any document highlighting authorisation from the LG representing Delhi police in the matter and granted time to advocate Amit Mahajan, appearing for the Delhi Police, to file the letters of communication .
The court was hearing a plea by the Delhi Police seeking to cancel Faisal’s bail granted by the lower court. On an earlier occasion, the hearing had seen exchange of words between solicitor general Tushar Mehta and the Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra who submitted that the Central Government has no power to file this petition against the June 20 order of the trial court.
Later, ASG Aman Lekhi had appeared in place of the SG who submitted that in this situation, out of disgust, he seeks permission to withdraw his name from the petition.
On Wednesday, the issue was again raised where the additional standing counsel (Delhi government) Rajesh Mahajan told the court that ASG Lekhi had no permission from the LG to appear in the matter.
He said the counsels have to show the grant of authorisation to file the plea as the L-G can’t approve and give clearance without the aid of the Delhi government council of ministers.
This irked the court which came down heavily on both the sides for not solving the issue even when it was informed on the last date that the ASG would appear and the matter was resolved.
Advocate Amit Mahajan, appearing for the Delhi police, said that after SG Mehta, ASG Aman Lekhi was also “getting embarrassed” to appear before the court due to the controversy. He said that now instead of the ASG, he would appear and gave some documents to the court showing grant of permission. He said that Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police, (legal), had authorised him to file the plea.
However, the court said that the DCP does not have such powers to appoint someone without approval from the higher authorities. He said that the documents filed do not show the permission from the LG and also expressed displeasure on this conduct.
The police, in the petition filed through advocates Amit Mahajan and Rajat Nair, have challenged the trial court’s June 20 order, which granted bail to Farooq on the ground that it had prima facie not been established that he was present at the spot at the time of incident.
The Delhi Police had on June 3 filed a charge sheet before the court against Farooq and 17 others in connection with a building being gutted during the northeast Delhi riots.
