A day after the Delhi High Court quashed the AAP Government's order to get the accounts of discoms audited by CAG, the party on Saturday demanded an enquiry into non-representation of the Delhi Government in the High Court in the case challenging discom audit. The party demanded that the Delhi Government should fix responsibility of those who "connived" with the discoms during President's Rule last year.
"The party has already made it clear it does not agree with the High Court verdict disallowing the CAG audit of discoms and the initial analysis of the judgement shows an erroneous conclusion by the court that the DERC is mandated to regulate and finalise electricity tariffs," the party stated and added that the court has overlooked a key fact that DERC is a regulator and not an auditor.
"The DERC itself had stated it wanted the CAG to audit the account books of discoms. The people of Delhi cannot and will not suffer for the mistake of the previous Congress Government, which paid no heed to the DERC recommendation of 2010 of getting a CAG audit of discoms."
Saying that these issues would be taken up strongly by the people of Delhi, the AAP stressed that it will not allow the "conspiracy" hatched during President's Rule to help the discoms have a free run in getting away with the CAG audit.
The party has raised questions on l-G Najeeb Jung's role through the Central Government after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal withdrew his Government. They have asked about who monitored the matter and discussed it with discoms during the lG's rule. "Did the legal team of the Delhi administration and the department of power or the lG try to find out the status of the caseIJ Is the non-representation in High Court and denial of documents to the CAG during the President's Rule interlinkedIJ" are the concerns AAP is raising against the l-G.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and expelled AAP leader Prashant Bhushan also came out joining the party's voice and termed the Delhi High Court's order "absurd". However, Bhushan, who was expelled by the party earlier this year, was unsparing of the AAP Government saying that a section of the people was happy with the HC judgement solely due to the "revulsion" of media and the middle classes against it. "The HC says CAG can't audit discoms since its DERCs job. But DERC asked for CAG audit since discoms were fudging accts.," Bhushan said in a tweet. "Unfortunate that due to revulsion of Media & middle classes against Kejriwal&AAP govt, many are happy with the absurd HC jt on Discoms audit," he said. The AAP Government has decided to move the Supreme Court against the HC order.