By Satya Prakash
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Delhi Legislative Assembly’s powers to constitute a committee to examine last year’s communal riots in the national capital.
A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, however, said such a committee can’t act like a prosecuting agency.
Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan had moved the top court challenging the summons issues to him by a committee of the Delhi Legislative Assembly asking him to appear before it.
The top court said Mohan’s petition challenging the summons issued to him by the Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee seeking his presence was premature.
The verdict means that Mohan will have to appear before the committee to depose even though he may not face any coercive action.
“The Assembly admittedly does not have the power to legislate under the issues which fall under the domain of union govt. However, objective of peace and harmony go beyond law and order and police,” the Court said, adding, the Delhi Assembly can look into the riots even though law and order wasn’t in the domain of NCT government.
“Investigation of a socially complicated problem too is under its domain,” the Bench said, adding the Delhi Assembly wasn’t different from any other state assembly except with respect to certain subjects in List 2 of Seventh schedule.
In September last year, the Supreme Court had asked Delhi Legislative Assembly’s peace and harmony committee not to take any coercive action against Mohan in connection with a summons issued to him to depose before it with regard to 2020 Delhi riots.
The Delhi Legislative Assembly’s peace and harmony committee – which is probing Facebook’s alleged role in spreading hate speech – had on September 10 last year issued notice to Mohan seeking his presence before it. Mohan and Facebook had challenged the notice before the top court.