New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed a petition seeking to declare the central government’s act of introducing the Lokpal bill last month as unconstitutional on grounds that parliamentary procedures were not followed.
Dismissing the public interest litigation, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said: ‘In our considered opinion, the writ petition has been preferred without any legal foundation and hence it cannot be made a subject matter under article 226.’
‘We decline to entertain the writ petition and dismiss the same,’ said Chief Justice Misra.
‘The government’s action in introducing all Lokpal bills (government as well as private ones) is unconstitutional and be declared so,’ advocate Manohar Lal Sharma had said in his petition filed Aug 29.
He added that the government had followed ‘unprecedented’ unconstitutional procedure to draft the bill by a drafting committee, which also comprised civil society members, in addition to government representatives.
The petition also alleged that the government was buckling under the pressure of civil society members and various political parties.
