Saxena seeks High Court’s intervention in liquor policy case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 6

Delhi Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday filed an application before the Delhi High Court seeking intervention in the proceedings, which have been filed by various petitioners challenging the Delhi Government’s Liquor Policy, 2021-22.

Officials said the L-G was constrained to file the intervention application on account of the repeated incorrect statements being made by the counsels for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), who wrongly and falsely attributed the delay in the submission of a court directed report to the L-G.

Raj Niwas officials said, “A committee had prepared the report regarding conforming and non-conforming areas, where liquor vends could be opened, on the directions of the HC in March 2022. The same had been prepared by the committee and put up by the Excise Commissioner for the approval of the L-G, way back in August 2022.”

However, the then Finance Minister Manish Sisodia had stalled the file on its way up to the L-G and the file kept shuttling between departments, before finally reaching the L-G in January 2024, the officials added.

Meanwhile, an official said the Delhi Government counsels kept misleading the court on different occasions by saying that the report had been pending before the L-G.

“By various orders of the HC, it became evident that the counsels for the GNCTD blatantly made false statements, attributing the delay to the L-G, when in fact, the report only came to him on January 16 of this year,” the official said.

“Having been misled by the GNCTD counsels, the court had to request the L-G to expeditiously clear the report for submission before it on three occasions. Aggrieved by the said misleading statements and with an intent to put the record right, the present intervention application was filed. The same was listed on March 5 and the court directed the application to be listed with the main matter on March 20,” the officials added.

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