NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre on city Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot’s plea challenging a provision which requires state government ministers, including the chief minister, to seek political clearances from the Centre for foreign visits.
The petition was filed in the backdrop of CM Arvind Kejriwal being denied permission for his visit to Singapore for the 8th World Cities’ Summit from July 31 to August 7.
Justice Yashwant Varma issued notices and asked the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Union of India through Ministries of External Affairs, Finance and Home Affairs to file their counter affidavits in response to the petition. The court listed the matter for further hearing on January 23 next year as the counsel for the respondents sought time to file their replies.
The petition said this was not the first instance of such ‘abuse of discretion’ and mentioned that the chief minister was previously denied permission to attend the C-40 World Mayors’ Summit in Copenhagen in 2019 and even Gahlot had requested for clearance to visit London on an invitation but there was no response from authorities in the Centre till the time the request became infructuous.
Gahlot, who is an AAP leader, has sought the issuance of guidelines to channel and guide the implementation of several Office Memoranda issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, empowering the Centre to grant or deny permission to ministers for foreign visits.
Gahlot, in his plea, said all these visits were on the invitation and were crucial for for exchanging ideas on improving urban governance and showcasing Delhi’s own progress in urban design and the alleged draconian manner in which the central authorities have used their discretion on travel clearances is only exacerbated further by the fact that even personal visits by state government ministers must be cleared by them.
Court curbs Sainik Farms work
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday said that it would not allow anyone to carry out any kind of construction or repair work in South Delhi’s Sainik Farms colony by way of interim orders and will, instead, finally decide the issues concerning its regularisation.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing pleas moved by certain residents of the affluent “unauthorised” colony, seeking permission to carry out repair and maintenance work in relation to their properties.
Opposing the pleas that claimed the houses require repair and some kind of regular maintenance, the Centre told the court that it is against granting any permission for repair work in Sainik Farms as the colony is “purely unauthorised” and any interim relief would facilitate further unauthorised construction in a rampant manner. “I am making it very clear that by interim orders, we will not permit anybody to raise any constructions nor repairs.”
Teen allowed to end pregnancy
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has allowed a 16-year-old pregnant rape survivor to terminate her 28-week pregnancy at the AIIMS, which has been directed to preserve the foetus for DNA testing.
Justice Yashwant Varma passed the order after perusing the report of the medical board constituted by AIIMS which had recommended medical termination of the victim’s pregnancy.
The court noted the teenage girl was constrained to approach the court in the light of the perception of the authorities that since she has crossed the 24-week pregnancy threshold as per the provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, the termination will be impermissible. The rape victim, in her petition, supported by an affidavit of her brother, submitted that the foetus was beyond 28 weeks old and she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.