Kailash Gehlot, who was a minister in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, has taken back his petition from Delhi High Court after he became a BJP MLA. The petition was against a rule which provided that the Chief Minister and State Government Ministers have to seek political clearance from the Centre for foreign visits.
The petition was filed in 2022 after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was stopped from attending the 8th World City Summit in Singapore. The petition submitted that this was not an isolated case of ‘abuse of discretion’. It prayed for guidelines to ensure that the Cabinet Secretariat directives are followed in a reasonable and non-arbitrary manner and that the Centre should not control the approvals for state ministers to travel foreign. Gehlot’s lawyer Sachin Dutta informed the court that he wanted to withdraw the petition. The court then closed it. The petition also stated that frequent and selective delays in granting travel clearances impact the national reputation on international platforms. He had resigned from the Delhi Cabinet in November 2024 and joined the BJP and then withdrew the petition which had been pending since a long time.
