NEW DELHI: While hearing a plea by seven BJP MLAs challenging their indefinite suspension from the Delhi Assembly for interrupting the lieutenant governor’s address, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked them whether they were willing to apologise to the L-G V K Saxena in the matter.
Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the senior counsel appearing for the suspended legislators to take instructions on this aspect after the senior lawyer for the assembly said a similar approach was adopted in the Supreme Court in the case of MP Raghav Chadha.
Senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog said the matter is not political and it involves the dignity of the office of the L-G.
“I spoke to the Speaker. He also suggested the route followed by the Supreme Court in Raghav Chadha’s case. If members were to come and meet the Speaker and apologise to the L-G, the whole thing could be put through,” he said.
Senior advocate Jayant Mehta, appearing for the MLAs, said there was no difficulty in apologising to the LG.
The court will continue hearing the matter on Wednesday after it was informed that there are some development ongoing in the issue.
The BJP MLAs had allegedly interrupted Lt Governor (LG) VK Saxena multiple times during his address on February 15 highlighting the achievements of the AAP government while they attacked the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation on a range of issues.
Senior advocate Mehta said 7 out of 8 BJP MLAs were suspended by the Speaker on February 16 when they had already been “marshalled out” the day before, which should have been considered as the punishment for their alleged wrongdoing.
Even if it is assumed that the conduct of the petitioners was disruptive, the suspension cannot exceed three days, he added. They contended that the entire opposition has been suspended from the House.