Centre asked to respond to plea challenging provision of seeking permission for foreign visits

The petition was filed in the backdrop of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being denied permission for his visit to Singapore for the 8th World Cities’ Summit from July 31 to August 7

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Centre on city 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 Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being denied permission for his visit to Singapore for the 8th World Cities’ Summit from July 31 to August 7.

Justice Yashwant Varma issued notices and asked the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Union of India through Ministries of External Affairs, Finance and Home Affairs to file their counter affidavits in response to the petition.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on January 23 next year as the counsel for the respondents sought time to file their replies.

Gahlot was represented through senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the matter.       

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 and even Gahlot had requested for clearance to visit London on an invitation but there was no response from authorities in the Centre till the time the request became infructuous.

Gahlot, who is 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.