The zero hour of the second day of the Winter Session of the Haryana Assembly saw allegations and counter-allegations leveled by Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Congress MLA Geeta Bhukkal.  The Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda objected to the proposed move to hand over assembly proceedings about allegations made by Chautala on December 15 against former education minister Bhukkal to a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Chautala had accused Bhukkal of sheltering Kartar Singh, the Jind school principal who was arrested recently for allegedly sexually exploiting girl students when she was the State Education Minister. Hooda insisted that the terms of reference should include inquiring into the background and activities of the principal, and not the proceeding of the assembly, while the state government insisted that the home department would be writing to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court requesting him to depute a judge of the high court to inquire into the allegations leveled by Chautala against Bhukkal and her denial about it. Chautala reiterated his allegations on Monday too.

As the pandemonium prevailed during Zero Hour in the House, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta adjourned the House for 15 minutes.  Gupta said that the terms of reference of the inquiry will entail establishing the veracity of allegations and counter-allegations. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the home department is writing to the high court in this regard.

Hooda told the Speaker that he should uphold the dignity of the House. Gupta said that the decision to request an inquiry by a sitting high court judge was taken by the House. The Speaker can inquire, and the state government can inquire. The assembly proceedings should not be subjected to the scrutiny of the high court,” Hooda said.

As the argument between the opposition members and the Speaker continued, Hooda said that Congress could bring a privilege motion against Dushyant for making misleading and incorrect statements in the House. Khattar told the House that the decision to get the matter inquired by a high court judge was taken by the assembly during its December 15 sitting and no one objected to it at that time. “The home department is writing to the high court. If the chief justice declines the request of the state government, then we can think of another option,” he said. Bhukkal said that there should be an inquiry “but the House is over and above the high court”.

However, Hooda, followed by various other Congress legislators, including Bhukkal and Bharat Bhushan Batra, continued to oppose it and said that instead, the Speaker or the Chief Minister or a committee constituted by the House should inquire into the matter.  JJP legislator Ram Kumar Gautam, too, opposed the House’s decision of getting the matter inquired into by a sitting High Court Judge and said: “Don’t give your head in the hands of the judge”.

However, Khattar insisted that since the decision of the inquiry to be conducted by a High Court Judge was unanimously passed by the House, they should go ahead with it.  “We have asked the Home Department to write a letter to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. We can not name any Judge to do this inquiry. It is the prerogative of the Chief Justice. If he denies our request, then we can look into it further. But, I suggest we proceed with it and write to the Chief Justice,” he added.