"Concerted attempts being made by Delhi govt to mislead Courts": LG writes to Centre

New Delhi [India], April 4 : The Delhi Lieutenant Governor secretariat on Thursday wrote a letter to the Union Home Secretary alleging "concerted attempts" were being made by the Delhi government to "mislead the courts" aiming to "influence" the justice delivery system.
"It is pertinent to underscore here that GNCTD vs the Lt. Governor", in various matters in different Courts, has become the prevalent norm, rather than an exception. The attempts obviously are, apart from misleading the Courts, to create a false Media narrative that maligns the constitutional office of the Lt. Governor in the public domain," the letter read.
LG office in its letter mentioned that it is a sad reflection on the manner in which standing counsels of the Delhi government are making patently false and misleading statements in the courts, "projecting the Lt Governor and his office in poor light".
"Another important matter relates to an ongoing case in the Delhi High Court on the Excise Policy. In pursuance of the High Court order dated 29.03.2022, a Committee was constituted for the purpose of identification and classification of conforming and non-conforming wards in NCT of Delhi w.r.t. implementation of the "New Excise Policy 2021-22" (now rescinded)," the letter read.
"The said Committee submitted its report on 18.08.2022, and the file to this effect was received for the first time by the Lt. Governor's Secretariat for submitting the report to the Hon'ble High Court, only on 16.01.2024 i.e. after a lapse of almost 1 year and 5 months," it added.
LG office said that the Kejriwal Government's counsel kept misleading the High Court on several occasions of hearing that the file was pending approval of the Lt. Governor.
"This misrepresentation of facts by the government counsel also got reflected in various orders of the Hon'ble High Court, wherein the High Court kept requesting the Lt. Governor to dispose of the file, even though no such file was pending in this secretariat," the letter read.
Earlier today, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the Health Secretary, Chief Secretary and other officials have been misleading the government over the medicine stock situation.
"For the last several weeks, the Health Secretary and the Chief Secretary have been repeatedly told that there is a shortage of free medicines etc. In government hospitals, and this should be rectified. But the officers are continuously giving wrong information that everything including medicines etc. is available. Yesterday, the news of a child was published in many newspapers that even cotton was not available in the hospital. Can officers mislead their own government by giving wrong information?" Bharadwaj posted on X.
Bharadwaj urged the Delhi LG Saxena to look into the matter.
"Before writing to LG Sahib, I wrote to the Chief Secretary several times, but he did not take any concrete steps. I hope the Lieutenant Governor will take action," he said.