Mumbai: Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that the Adarsh commission report will be tabled before the state legislature during the ongoing winter session. The petition filed by two BJP leaders get respond which seeking that the report should be tabled soon.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had tabled the report on Adarsh land in the Parliament on Monday. Senior counsel for the petitioner, Mahesh Jethmalani, on Tuesday, argued before the court, “Now, it will be an obstruction of Parliament’s functioning if the (Adarsh commission) report isn’t tabled before the Assembly.”
While submitting the copies of the PAC report to the court, Jethmalani said, “The PAC report has specifically requested the state government to give it a copy of the Adarsh commission report so that it can prepare its final report. You can’t obstruct the Parliament’s functioning by delaying the tabling.” Mr. Jethmalani said.
This prompted the BJP leaders to file a public interest litigation before the Bombay High Court recently. The state government initially requested the court to dismiss the petition on grounds that it isn’t maintainable. But after marathon arguments from both the sides, the court held that the petition was maintainable, and asked the state government to give submission about what it planned to do about the report.
Government pleader G.W. Mattos later informed the court that the report will be tabled during the winter session.
The division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and M.S. Sonak said, “The government pleader has, on instructions, told the court that the Adarsh commission report is to be tabled in the winter session which has already commenced from December 9. In view of this statement, the petition does not survive, and is disposed off.”
The two-member Adarsh commission had submitted its report to the state government in April 2013. The state government has spent nearly Rs. Seven crore on the commission.
The government did not table either the report or the Action Taken Report before the legislature, causing huge uproar amid the opposition since April 2013.
Bureau Report
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