Delhi L-G advises CM Atishi to summon Assembly sitting on Dec 19 or 20 to table CAG reports

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has written to Chief Minister Atishi, slamming the AAP government over a "deliberate lapse" in tabling CAG reports in the assembly and advising her to summon a special session of the House on December 19 or 20 to do so.

In his letter on Tuesday, Saxena alleged that there has been a "conscious and deliberate lapse" on the part of the elected government in presenting the 14 reports over the last two years.

In normal course, a legislature is convened for at least three sessions in a year but it is a "travesty" of legislative practice that the Delhi government convened only five sessions in five years, he wrote to the Delhi chief minister.

The LG said that the third part of the fifth session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly was adjourned sine die on December 4 but yet not prorogued.

"You, being the Leader of the House, in consultation with the Speaker, may convene a special sitting of the Assembly for laying these CAG Reports on December 19 or December 20, given the inordinate delay in the matter and that elections for the Eighth Legislative Assembly are impending," he said.

The L-G added that ordinarily, he would not have indicated a time frame for calling a special sitting of the House on short notice, but the situation was extraordinary as the term of the current assembly and that of the elected government is set to expire in February 2025.

The issue is currently sub judice as the opposition BJP legislators have filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, seeking a direction to the elected government to table the reports in the assembly.

Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta, who filed the petition on Tuesday, gave an ultimatum to the AAP government, saying the BJP would again approach the high court if the government failed to call a special session to table the reports within 48 hours.

Saxena also said that he had been consistently writing to Atishi and her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, reminding them of the criticality of this fundamental obligation.

"It pains me that in the 75th year of adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly, an elected government which won popular mandate on the plank of transparency has deliberately chosen the path of opacity in disclosure, even before fellow legislators," he said in his letter.

The L-G said he was sure the chief minister of Delhi was conscious of the significance of a statutory audit on the functioning of various departments undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

This has perhaps been an "irredeemable blow" to the majesty of the legislature, which represents the voice of the people, he said and noted that the reports were placed before him only after the matter reached the court.

"All these CAG reports were returned promptly to your office on December 13, 2024 itself with approval for laying the said audit reports by calling a special sitting of the House," Saxena added.