New Delhi, January 10
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has called for an all-party meeting here on January 20 to discuss the situation arising out of the Delhi High Court notice to the Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, Election Commission and the Centre on the expulsion of MPs in the cash-for-query case.
Sources in Parliament secretariat said the Speaker had convened the meeting to ascertain the views of all political parties and the stand to be taken to the notice.
They said even legal experts had been asked to attend the meeting to give their views on the issue to facilitate the legislators to take a stand. Mr Chatterjee had stated that courts had no jurisdiction in the matter.
The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notices to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, Election Commission and the Centre on the petitions by eight of the 11 MPs challenging their expulsion in the scam.
The expelled MPs who moved the plea include Mr Chhattarpal Singh Lodha (Rajya Sabha), Mr Suresh Chandel (Hamirpur), Mr Pradeep Gandhi (Rajnandgaon), Mr Yashwant G Mahajan (Jalgaon), Mr M.K. Anna Saheb Patil (Erandol) and Mr Chandra Pratap Singh (Sidhi), (all BJP), RJD's Manoj Kumar (Palamu) and Congress' Ram Sevak Singh (Gwalior), (all Lok Sabha). The order of December 23, 2005, to expel 11 MPs from Parliament was “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”, the petitioners argued.
The petitioners have also sought directions to the Election Commission not to conduct any polls in these constituencies till the final decision was taken. The Pawan Bansal committee, which looked into the matter, did not give them a
chance to redress their grievances, they said. They said they had been victimised by certain persons allegedly representing the media and thereafter, they were punished by the Speaker and the Union Government merely on the basis of the media reports. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had acted in haste and expelled them without giving due consideration to the privileges enjoyed by the petitioners as the Members of Parliament, said the petition.
The respondents had ignored the principles of law and natural justice while constituting the committee and calling upon it to investigate the matter on the basis of the evidence furnished by the “vested interests” who had been motivated by financial gains and cheap publicity, the petition said.
In all, 11 MPs were expelled from Parliament after “Operation Duryodhan”, which showed them allegedly accepting bribe from undercover reporters posing as NGO representatives, to raise questions in the House.
