Delhi govt. rejects lawyers proposed by police
Cabinet says decision aims to ensure ‘free and fair’ trial in February riots cases
The Arvind Kejriwalled Cabinet on Tuesday rejected
the panel of lawyers proposed by Delhi Police to argue cases related to the
northeast Delhi riots and antiCAA protests in the Supreme Court and the Delhi
High Court.
Delhi Police had proposed
a panel of six senior lawyers,
including Solicitor General
Tushar Mehta and Aman
Lekhi as special counsel, in
85 cases related to the riots
and protests.
The decision, which the
Cabinet said sought to “ensure independence between
investigation and prosecution” and address questions
raised on the “fairness” and
“impartiality” of the force in
the investigation of these cases, has paved the way for a
fresh round of confrontation
between the Delhi government and the office of LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal.
The Cabinet, the Chief Minister’s Office said in a statement, observed that courts
had already raised “serious
questions on fairness of investigations” done by Delhi
Police in riots cases and a
free and fair trial would not
be possible by “a panel of lawyers selected by Delhi Police itself”.
‘Routine matter’
The Cabinet has issued directions for the appointment of
the “best lawyers in the
country” to represent the
Delhi government in such
cases. According to sources,
while observing that Mr. Baijal’s office had special powers
to disagree with the government, the Cabinet said this
was in the “rarest of rare”
cases and the appointment
of prosecutors was a routine
matter unfit to be referred to
the President.
Mr. Baijal’s office chose
not to react immediately but
Raj Niwas sources said a detailed response to the decision was expected on Wednesday.
The AAP government had
earlier rejected Delhi Police
proposal stating that its
standing counsel Rahul Mehra and his team were capable
of contesting the riots cases.
This was followed by disagreement on Mr. Baijal’s
part who then wrote a letter
to Mr. Kejriwal, asking him to
refer the matter to the Council of Ministers and take a decision “expeditiously, preferably within a week”.
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