New Delhi, March 27 (H.S.): The Speaker of the Delhi Assembly announced that no further action will be taken on the pending matters sent to the Privileges Committee, Petitions Committee, and Question and Reference Committee during the Sixth and Seventh Assemblies, and these will be considered resolved. Some of the pending matters are related to officials of the Delhi government. The Assembly Speaker stated that at a meeting held on December 4, 2024, the Seventh Assembly passed three resolutions to investigate the unfinished business of the Privileges Committee, Petitions Committee, and Question and Reference Committee by the relevant committees of the Eighth Assembly under Rule 183. According to Rule 183, any unfinished business of a committee before the dissolution of the Assembly can be sent to the new Assembly's committee. At the time of the dissolution of the Sixth and Seventh Assemblies, the Assembly passed a resolution to carry forward the unfinished business of these three committees.

The Assembly Speaker mentioned that after reviewing all the pending matters before the committee, it was determined that these matters should not be taken forward. There were 59 matters pending from the Sixth Assembly and 69 matters from the Seventh Assembly with the Privileges Committee. According to Rule 223, the Privileges Committee should generally submit its report within a month. Most complaints were filed by members of the ruling party at the time against officials of the Delhi government. Ideally, if the complaints were genuine, the committees should have investigated these matters and reported to the House. However, the reasons for their pending status were known better to the then members of the committee.

Similarly, there were 107 pending matters in the Petitions Committee from the Sixth Assembly and 72 from the Seventh Assembly. The Question and Reference Committee also has 04 pending matters from the Seventh Assembly. There was also an attempt to target officials of the Delhi government in these committees. Some of these matters have been pending since 2016, and no meetings have been held for their investigation. Some officials sought protection from the courts, and eight cases are now in the Delhi High Court.

The Assembly Speaker stated that the Eighth Assembly's committees should begin with a clean slate and should not get involved in matters that appear to be motivated by bias. Therefore, he requests the House to consider whether these matters should be pursued or left aside. Chief Whip Abhay Verma has given notice to present a proposal in this regard. Abhay Verma presented the proposal, and the House has decided to leave these matters aside.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar