Politically motivated petition: Goel

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 22

The petition submitted to Delhi Lokayukta appealing details of MLAs' properties and liabilities is politically motivated and ill-advised attempt to harass and threaten the MLAs, said Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel.

He said that petition - Vivek Bhardwaj verses Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister and others - had no mention of four BJP MLAs. This is only for 66 AAP MLAs. The petition is unsigned. Instead of serving notice to the MLAs, the office of Lokayukta should have dismissed it. “Submitting unsigned petition is illegal and crime. Action should be taken against the person who submitted the petition”, the Speaker said addressing a conference.

In a letter written to the Lokayukta, he said that it was an avoidable situation. “Had your office troubled itself to conduct due diligence before issuing the notice in a subject in which your office is completely out of jurisdiction”, he said.

He said that the manner in which the entire proceedings had been handled was a cause of concern and appeared to be a serious attempt to show Delhi Assembly and the Delhi MLAs in a poor light. His political motives are obvious from his attempt to implead only the MLAs from the ruling party.

Speaker said, “Unfortunately, the petitioner has succeeded in dragging your august office too into this needless controversy.”

He said that statutory provisions mentioned had been misrepresented and were not at all material to the case. A preliminary enquiry by the law department or the assembly secretariat would have brought out the true picture. “Instead, your office proceeded to issue notices mechanically with utmost haste,” the Speaker said.

He also said that the letter which was sent to the Assembly Secretariat mentioned 66 MLAs including the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, who are beyond the jurisdiction of the Lokayukta.