The state cabinet is likely to take a final call on Tuesday on the appointment of special public prosecutors for representing the government in Delhi high court in cases pertaining to the February communal riots.
A tussle between the elected government and lieutenant governor has been going on over the issue for quite some time. Since the beginning, the AAP government had been insisting that only lawyers selected by it should be appointed for a free and fair trial and not the ones recommended by Delhi Police or the Centre.
Last week, LG Anil Baijal had written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to decide on the matter within a week. The LG wanted the government to approve the panel of lawyers selected by Delhi Police. Delhi government was not ready to accept this order.
A source said, “In the past few months, Delhi government standing counsel Rahul Mehra has fought for the rights of people wrongly arrested by Delhi Police. Due to his strong arguments, activists like Safoora Zargar and Faisal Farooq got bail. The government believes that it will be difficult for people to get justice if the cases are represented by lawyers recommended by the Centre.”
On July 10, Delhi Police had sent a proposal to the AAP government to appoint a team of six senior lawyers, including Tushar Mehta and Aman Lekhi, to represent the prosecution in the high court in 85 cases of communal riots and anti-CAA protests. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who was then handling the home department, had rejected the proposal.
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