Delhi High Court
Delhi High Court postponed making a decision regarding the appeals of seven BJP Members of Legislative Assembly who had been suspended indefinitely on Tuesday. The High Court had requested that the privilege committee refrain from intervening during the hearing. Following the suspension, the matter was referred to the committee. OP Sharma, Mohan Singh Bisht, Jitendra Mahajan, Ajay Kumar Mahavar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Vajpayee, and Vijender Gupta, all BJP MLAs, contested their suspension.
Due to their alleged disruption of the Delhi Assembly on February 15 during the LG’s speech, these seven MLAs have been suspended. After hearing the arguments made by the MLAs’ attorneys and the Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Justice Subramonium Prasad reserved the decision on the pleas. The counsels have been requested by the bench to submit written responses.
Following the hearing of the arguments made by MLAs Jayant Mehta, Kirti Uppal, and Pavan Narang, the High Court postponed making a decision. For the respondent, senior advocates Sudhir Nandrajog and Sameer Vasisht made an appearance. It is argued that the MLAs’ constitutional rights under Articles 14, 19, and 22 of the Indian Constitution were violated by the motion for their suspension.
The senior advocates contended that the Speaker had marshalled them out as retribution for their purported misbehavior. How, therefore, can a motion be approved in this respect? The attorney argued, How can they be punished twice for the same infraction? Furthermore, it was claimed that because the motion mentioned the MLAs against whom it was passed, the proper procedures were not followed in passing it. The privilege committee was also tasked with reviewing the case.
Second, the MLAs have been placed on leave until the privilege committee has resolved the issue. This time frame is undefined. A perpetual suspension is not permissible. The Counsels also maintained that MLAs are representatives of their constituency and cannot be excluded from office for an extended length of time.
Additionally, it was claimed that the MLAs’ freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution had also been infringed. Since they speak for the people in their constituency, they also violate the people’s rights. The MLAs’ attorneys had also claimed during the previous hearing that certain political remarks had been made regarding the matter, such as “What you did with AAP members in the Rajya Sabha.”
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