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HC seeks response of chief secretary and Delhi Police on charges against CM, deputy
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, named as accused in the chief secretary assault case, have also challenged the order, permitting two other advocates to conduct the prosecution on behalf of the officer of the Delhi Police, instead of a regular public prosecutor attached to the court concerned.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought to know the stand of the city police, chief secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash and the state government on a plea by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, seeking to challenge their prosecution in the alleged assault of the CS during a midnight meeting on February 19. The Aam Aadmi Party has denied the assault, and accused the Delhi Police of launching a witch hunt against it.
According to Irshaad, an advocate who represented the two, justice Najmi Waziri asked the counsels of both the parties to seek an adjournment in the case proceedings on the next date of hearing at the trial court. The matter, in the lower court, is scheduled to be heard on December 7.
At the hearing on Thursday, there was a verbal spat between the lawyers appearing for the Delhi government and the Delhi Police over representing the police force in the matter.
Even as Delhi government’s standing counsel Rahul Mehra said that he was the assigned person to represent the Delhi Police in the high court, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aman Lekhi and the Central government’s standing counsel Anil Soni contended that they had been authorised by the Delhi government’s Deputy Secretary (Home) to represent the police in the matter.
Mehra strongly objected to Lekhi’s appearance, contending he (Mehra) had been duly appointed through a notification to represent the Delhi Police.
Justice Waziri said the ASG would have to make a case for himself to argue the matter, and listed the matter for hearing on January 17.
Kejriwal and Sisodia, named as accused in the CS assault case, have also challenged the order, permitting two other advocates to conduct the prosecution on behalf of the officer of the Delhi Police, instead of a regular public prosecutor attached to the court concerned.
Appearing for the CM, senior advocate N Hariharan said a special public prosecutor (SPP) could be appointed under Section 302 of the CrPC, but there have to be special circumstances, and there was nothing special here.
He said 10 other cases were pending against the chief minister before the same trial court judge and they were being tried by the regular cadre public prosecutor, in which the complainant was either the state or government officials.
