Govt appeals against Sheila FIR
The city government moved the Delhi high court on Tuesday challenging a trial court’s order directing that a FIR be lodged against chief minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged misuse of government funds in an advertisement campaign ahead of the 2008 Assembly polls.
The high court directed senior BJP leader Vijender Gupta and the city police commissioner to file their responses to the plea by September 19. The government has sought quashing of the August 31 order passed by the trial court. On the petitioner’s plea for grant of stay on the trial court order, Justice Sunil Gaur said he would pass a detailed order later.
Appearing for the state government, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Siddharth Luthra contended that Mr Gupta, while filing the complaint against Ms Dikshit and while seeking registration of FIR, has relied only on lokayukta report otherwise there is no material against her and the officers directly. “The complaint is a politically motivated and frivolous one. There is no direct material except lokayukta report against the chief minister and other officers,” the senior law officer of government argued.
Seeking quashing of the order, the counsel said “Can you allow the officers of the state to be harassed in this manner? The State has come here because the officers have been effected.”
Opposing the plea, Gupta’s counsel Sanjay Jain questioned the locus standi of the government and said, “The CM is not here. How the state is affected by the trial court’s order? The State should be impartial. Preventing police from probing the fact is not desirable in the interest of justice. We want to know how much public money has been misutilised and who are the recipients.”
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