Senior Supreme Court lawyer and expelled AAP leader Prashant Bhushan has termed the Delhi high court’s order quashing the AAP government’s decision to get the accounts of discoms audited by the CAG as “absurd”. However, Mr Bhushan, who was expelled by the party earlier this year, was unsparing of the AAP government, saying that a section of the people were happy with the high court judgment solely due to the “revulsion” of media and the middle classes against it. “HC says CAG can’t audit discoms since it’s DERCs job. But DERC asked for CAG audit since discoms were fudging acts,” Mr Bhushan said in a tweet. “Unfortunate that due to revulsion of Media & middle classes against Kejriwal&AAP govt, many are happy with the absurd HC jt on Discoms audit,” he said.
The AAP government has decided to move the Supreme Court against the HC order. The order said that since DERC has the power to audit private discoms, there can be no other audit by CAG at the instance of the state government. Bushan also referred to an apex court verdict last year that had said that the CAG can audit the account books of private telecom companies that share revenues with the government for using spectrum. “SC says Telco accts be audited by CAG since govt gets 1-5%. HC says CAG audit not for Discoms tho govt owns 49% & gave 1000s Cr to them. Absurd!” Mr Bhushan tweeted.
