Supreme Court
The Supreme Court turned down a PIL on Friday that asked it to give the Lok Sabha Secretariat instructions so that President Droupadi Murmu could inaugurate the new Parliament building.
The court understands why and how this case was brought, but it is not inclined to consider this petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, a bench of justices JK Maheshwari and PS Narasimha informed petitioner Jaya Sukin in person.
Sukin said under Article 79, the president is the executive head of the country and she should have been invited. He, however, said if the court does not wish to entertain the petition, he be allowed to withdraw it.
If the plea is permitted to be withdrawn, it will be filed in the high court, according to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, speaking on behalf of the Centre.
The petition was later dismissed by the judge as withdrawn.
The petition claimed that by not inviting the president to the inauguration, the respondents, the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the Union of India, are “humiliating” the president.
An attorney for the Supreme Court filed the plea in the midst of a debate over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned opening of the new Parliament building on May 28.
To protest the president being “sidelined,” twenty opposition parties have made the decision to skip the ceremony.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, 19 political parties said, “When the soul of democracy has been sucked out of Parliament, we find no value in a new building.”
The BJP-led NDA shot back, condemning the “contemptuous” decision.
“This act is not merely disrespectful; it is a blatant affront to the democratic ethos and constitutional values of our great nation,” parties belonging to the ruling NDA said in a statement on Wednesday.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had recently met the prime minister and invited him to inaugurate the new building. Modi had also laid the foundation stone for the building in 2020 and most opposition parties had stayed away from the event even then.
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