The Delhi government had petitioned the Delhi High Court against Anti Corruption Bureau chief, MK Meena for not acting on a complaint to arrest some officials for allegedly accepting a bribe.
The Delhi High Court today declined to issue any immediate order on Aam Aadmi Party government's plea of lodging a case against the state's anti-graft chief, MK Meena. The Arvind Kejriwal led state government had petitioned the Court against Mr Meena for not acting on a complaint by a government officer to arrest some officials for allegedly accepting bribe.
The government had claimed that no First Information Reports (FIRs) were lodged by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials who were arrested by a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) while allegedly accepting a bribe.
Justice V P Vaish did not pass any order, he said , "Come on August 11, I will decide it."
Defending the ACB chief, the Centre contended that the anti-graft unit had refused to lodge an FIR as it cannot take action against central government employees, an issue which has been challenged and is pending in the high court.
Accusing the state government of having a "grudge" against Mr Meena, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG), Sanjay Jain said, "They (Delhi government) are creating a paper trail to impress the media. They are trying to harass the officer against whom they have prior animosity."
Earlier, senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who was representing the AAP government, said there was a Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification which says even if ACB has no jurisdiction to lodge an FIR, they should at least register a zero FIR and transfer the case to the concerned police station. He said that if the ACB does not do so, then an FIR should be lodged against the officer concerned.
The Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung and Mr Kejriwal have been involved in a bitter turf war over the past few months over who controls the state administration. On June 8, the LG had appointed Joint Commissioner MK Meena to take charge of ACB, superseding the Additional Commissioner, SS Yadav, who was hand-picked by Delhi government for the post.
On August 11, the High Court is also scheduled to hear an ongoing litigation in which the state government has challenged the Centre's notification giving the LG absolute powers to appoint bureaucrats in the national capital.