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| HC to hear Delhi minister's plea challenging provision of seeking Centre's nod to visit abroad | | |
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NEW DELHI, Aug 28: The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear on Monday Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot's plea challenging a provision which requires state government ministers, including the chief minister, to seek political clearances from the Centre for foreign visits.
The petition was filed in the backdrop of the recent denial of permission to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his visit to Singapore to attend the 8th World Cities' Summit from July 31 to August 7.
Justice Yashwant Varma had earlier asked the petitioner to file an additional affidavit to buttress one of the reliefs claimed in the petition relating to permission for personal foreign visits. The petition said this was not the first instance of such abuse of discretion and mentioned that the chief minister was previously denied permission to attend the C-40 World Mayors' Summit in Copenhagen in 2019.
It said even Gahlot had requested for clearance to visit London at the invitation of Transport for London but there was no response from the authorities concerned in the central government till the time the request became infructuous. Gahlot, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, has sought issuance of guidelines to channel and guide the implementation of several Office Memoranda issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, empowering the Centre to grant or deny permission to state government ministers for foreign visits in their official capacity.
The minister, in his plea, said these visits were by invitation and were crucial fora for exchanging ideas on improving urban governance and showcasing Delhi's own progress in urban design, and claimed the "draconian" manner in which the central authorities used their discretion on travel clearances is only exacerbated further by the fact that even personal visits by state government ministers must be cleared by them.
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