delhi-hc-seeks-cag-s-reply-on-pil-to-make-reports-public

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the stand of the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG) on a PIL seeking its 14 reports on city administration to be made public.

A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar asked CAG to explain why its report could not be made public and posted the hearing on January 24.

Brij Mohan, a retired civil servant, who filed the PIL said the voters in Delhi must be aware of the state of affairs in the capital and its financial health before they cast their votes in the upcoming assembly polls.

The CAG's reports were critical of some of the AAP-led government's policies, including its now-scrapped excise policy for reportedly causing losses to the exchequer.

The PIL said the reports, which relate to several issues ranging from excise policy to pollution, had a direct impact on governance in Delhi.

"The general elections are due in early 2025 in Delhi, and political parties are making all sorts of promises to voters in Delhi. It is absolutely essential that the financial health of Delhi should be known to the public before Delhi goes to polls," it said.

The deadlock in making the CAG’s reports public appears to be arising from the situation and that Delhi government, for whatever reason, is not inclined to make the reports public, whereas the public interest demands that the reports should come in public domain before elections are held in Delhi, argued the PIL.

The petitioner therefore sought a direction to the Central government, the Lieutenant Governor and the CAG, to make the reports public.

High court's Justice Sachin Datta on December 13 said the reports should have been promptly placed before the assembly for discussion and the Delhi government "dragging its feet" on the issue raised "doubts on its bonafides".

Opposition leader Vijender Gupta and BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan filed the petition last year and sought a direction to the speaker to call a sitting of the assembly for the purpose of tabling the CAG reports.