The Delhi High Court on Monday stated that the Delhi government appeared to have dragged its feet on tabling several reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General in the Assembly, reported PTI.

This raised doubts about the government’s bonafides, said Justice Sachin Datta.

Seven Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs approached the High Court in December, demanding that 14 CAG reports about policy measures undertaken by the Aam Aadmi Party government in the national capital be tabled in the Assembly.

Datta said on Monday that the Delhi government should have promptly placed the CAG reports before the House for discussion.

“The timeline is stark,” said the judge. “See the way you have been dragging your feet is something that is unfortunate.”

The BJP MLAs had sought a direction to the speaker to call a special Assembly session so that the reports could be tabled. The judge, however, said that calling for a session was the prerogative of the speaker and questioned whether the court could pass such a directive, especially when elections were approaching.

The Delhi Assembly election will be held on February 5 and the results will be announced on February 8.

The petitions before the High Court have been filed by Vijender Gupta, the leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, and other BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan.

The Delhi government told the court that the petitions were politically motivated and indicated that it intended to file a counter-affidavit, ANI reported. The petitioners, however, argued that the matter was not a political one, but was about ensuring that the government was held accountable.

Last week, the Delhi Assembly Secretariat told the High Court that no useful purpose would be served by tabling the CAG reports in the Assembly since its tenure ends in February, The Hindu reported.

“These reports could be subjected to closer and detailed examination only by the successor PAC [public accounts committee] to be elected by the next Assembly, which will be constituted after the elections,” the secretariat said.

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi on Monday referred to this statement in a press conference and asked how long the Aam Aadmi Party would “escape its constitutional responsibility”. He said that Aam Aadmi Party convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appeared to consider himself above the Constitution.