New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the secretary general of the Lok Sabha on Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra’s plea challenging her recent expulsion from the Lok Sabha.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that one of the issues that the court will be looking at is if the court has the jurisdiction to review the Lok Sabha’s actions, LiveLaw has reported.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared to oppose this line, saying, “A sovereign organ of the State is deciding its internal discipline. What is the scope of judicial review, if at all?”.
The apex court said that the Lok Sabha secretary general’s reply is to be filed within three weeks. Moitra will get an additional three weeks to file a rejoinder, if any.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is counsel for Mahua Moitra, pleaded with the court that Moitra be allowed to attend Lok Sabha proceedings in the meantime as an interim measure. The court did not grant this.
Moitra is lawmaker from Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal. On December 8, she was expelled after an ethics committee report accused her of unethical conduct over a cash-for-query allegations against her.
The chairperson of the committee is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar. Moitra had slammed the probe as ‘filthy, unethical, misogynistic’. Several opposition MPs had walked out.
The investigation came after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey along with a lawyer, Jai Anant Dehadrai – termed by Moitra as a ‘jilted ex’ – had filed the complaint with the committee alleging that the TMC MP had accepted bribes from Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in parliament. The complaint said Moitra had shared the password of the official email of her Lok Sabha account with Hiranandani, claiming it had compromised ‘national security’.
According to LiveLaw, Singhvi in court cited what was standard practice for MPs – to delegate work to secretaries and assistants, when it comes to uploading questions.
“Can an MP not delegate her work? Imagine Hiranandani to be her secretary for a minute. Now you can say that he is not her secretary…” he said.
The court asked him if he is accepting that a one-time password was shared with him.