NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave no immediate relief to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra in the cash-for-query case but sought response from the Secretary General of Lok Sabha Secretariat within three weeks on her plea challenging her expulsion from the Lower House. It refused to pass any order on her plea seeking permission to participate in the Lok Sabha proceedings.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior lawyer appearing for Moitra, urged the court to allow Moitra to participate in the House proceedings, which was rejected by the court’s two-judge bench, headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna. As the court fixed March 11 as the next date of hearing, Singhvi pleaded to reschedule the date possibly to February, citing urgency on the ground of budget session and her participation in it.
Refused to pass any order, the court said, “We would keep the matter pending and we would hear on the issue of jurisdiction and merits open. We will not comment on anything. “We will not get into the multiple issues that arise with judicial review at this stage. Let reply be filed by first respondent (Lok Sabha Secretariat) in three weeks, List on week commencing March 11,” it said. Appearing for the SG LG, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar said that the court should not interfere in the decisions taken inside Parliament to maintain inters discipline.
Singhvi said that Moitra was expelled only for sharing her login ID. She has had the privilege of being in Parliament for 18 years. She was expelled without any rules against password sharing. “Rules invoked deal with hacking,” he stated. On December 8, after her expulsion in the ‘cash-for-query’ case, 49-year-old Moitra had approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision and seeking enforcement of her fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution. She was expelled as a Lok Sabha Member after she was found guilty by the Ethics panel in the case.
“The ethics committee order is unfair, unjust and arbitrary,” her petition said. The Ethics Committee had done a severe illegality and she was denied the principles of natural justice during the committee’s investigation against her plea said. In an affidavit to the ethics committee, Hiranandani claimed that Moitra had shared with him her log-in ID and password for the Lok Sabha members’ website.
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Caste-based discrimination in jails
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Physical presence of government officials in courts may not be necessary except in judicial proceedings involving recording of evidence, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday in its standard operating procedure meant to regulate the summoning of officials by courts across the country.