The AAP government on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that it has forwarded Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India reports to the office of Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V K Saxena to be placed before the Legislative Assembly. The L-G, in turn, informed the court that it had received the reports on December 11. The court of Justice Sanjeev Narula was hearing a petition filed by BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai and Jitender Mahajan, seeking tabling of 12 CAG reports in the Assembly. They have contended the government was acting in breach of its statutory duty by failing to "promptly" lay crucial CAG reports on various issues such as pollution and liquor before the Assembly. Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog, representing the Delhi government, informed the court orally, “I have oral instructions that the finance minister (CM Atishi) has forwarded the files to the L-G. But I will not make any statement unless I get it in writing from them.” The court gave the Delhi government and the L-G office time to file their affidavits and posted the petition for further hearing on December 16. The Delhi Assembly had held its Winter Session from November 29 to December 4. No other session of the House is scheduled prior to the Assembly elections slated to be held next February. An affidavit dated December 11 – filed through Sanjeev Sharma, deputy controller of accounts (Vigilance) at principal accounts office of GNCTD – submitted that the reports as and when received from the principal accountant general (Audit) Delhi, “have been processed timely” and “forwarded to the office of the finance minister” with the request to forward the same to the L-G for according approval for tabling them in the Assembly. The affidavit maintained that the reports are “not pending” with the finance department but are with the office of the finance minister It added that “various reminders were sent” to the office of the finance minister/CM to place the finance and appropriation accounts of GNCTD along with CAG reports before the L-G office and the “last reminder” was sent on November 27. The affidavit stated that seven CAG reports have been pending with the finance minister’s office since August 2023. According to an affidavit filed by the L-G office, it has been communicating since February 22 to “expeditiously process the CAG reports so that the same can be laid down before the Legislative assembly in the ensuing Budget session (in March)”.
