Delhi House panel moves SC seeking to intervene in Facebook's official’s plea

During the hearing, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the committee, said that he has prepared written submission which needs to be placed before the bench.
AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chaddha (Photo | Office of Raghav Chaddha, Twitter)
AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chaddha (Photo | Office of Raghav Chaddha, Twitter)
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NEW DELHI: Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee on Thursday approached the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in a plea filed by Facebook India VP and MD Ajit Mohan challenging the summons issued by the panel for failing to appear before it as a witness in connection with the northeast Delhi riots case.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy issued notice to the committee, headed by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raghav Chadha, and asked it to file the reply within four weeks.

During the hearing, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the committee, said that he has prepared written submission which needs to be placed before the bench.The top court said that it will have to issue notice before hearing the committee to which Dhavan said that if there is no objection then the bench may issue notice to the panel.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Mohan, said that he does not have any objection to the hearing of Dhavan but the legal aspect of the committee’s intervention needs to be looked into.The bench said that rejoinder if any needs to be filed in two weeks thereafter and posted the matter for further hearing in the third week of January.

On October 15, the Centre had told the bench that proceedings of the Peace and Harmony committee is without jurisdiction as the issue pertained to law and order. It had said that public order and police are not within the domain of the Delhi Legislative Assembly and therefore this proceeding is without jurisdiction.

The plea filed by Mohan, Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd and Facebook Inc has contended that the committee lacks the power to summon or hold petitioners in breach of its privileges for failing to appear and it was exceeding its constitutional limits.

Committe had summoned Facebook VP 
Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee, headed by AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, had issued notices September 10 and 18 seeking Mohan’s presence before the panel

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