Sheila Dikshit moves HC to save herself

The Delhi government has moved the high court challenging the trial court's order for lodging of FIR against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged misuse of government funds in an advertisement campaign ahead of the 2008 assembly polls.

Appearing before a bench of Chief Justice N Venkata Ramana and Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra mentioned the plea saying, "There is an urgency in the matter and let it be heard today itself".

He sought a direction that the plea challenging the trial court's August 31 order be filed before the registry and listed for hearing on Tuesday itself.

The bench allowed the senior law officer's submissions and directed that the matter be listed at 2:15 pm before the appropriate bench.

The special court had on August 31 directed the Delhi Police to register FIR against Dikshit on the complaint of BJP leader Vijender Gupta and a similar plea of RTI activist Vivek Garg alleging that Dikshit had misused government funds to the tune of Rs 22.56 crore in an advertisement campaign ahead of the 2008 assembly polls.

They had sought registration of FIR against Dikshit and others for alleged criminal breach of trust (section 409 IPC), criminal misappropriation of public funds and criminal misconduct under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The complaints said in 2007-08, Dikshit was the Chief Minister of Delhi and also minister in-charge of information and publicity when the alleged misuse of funds took place.