New Delhi, July 18: The Delhi High Court today rejected a PIL seeking direction to the Centre not to send Indian troops to Iraq except on the express request of the UN General Assembly.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice A K Sikri dismissed the PIL filed by advocate P N Lekhi on the ground that no such decision has actually been taken by the government and that his apprehensions were based on "contradictory" reports appearing in newspapers.
"Newspaper reports can not form a valid basis for exercising the writ jurisdiction of this court under Article 226," the bench, which had earlier reserved its order on the case, said.
The bench accepted the submission of additional solicitor general K K Sud that the court should not interfere in policy matters of the government on the reports, which were in the nature of opinion, conjecture and hearsay.
Sud had argued that courts should not and cannot go into the foreign policy moves on such a sensitive issue of vital national interest.
In his petition, Lekhi had sought direction to the Centre not to allow Indian armed forces, if sent to Iraq, to work under the command and control of the "authority" established by the US there.
Bureau Report
