SC to hear on Monday TMC leader Mahua Moitra's plea against her expulsion from LS
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea moved by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra challenging her expulsion from the Lok Sabha.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the plea, in which the court had earlier refused to grant interim relief to Moitra, who had sought permission to attend the Lok Sabha proceedings till the final adjudication of her plea.
The top court had, on January 3, sought the Lok Sabha secretariat's response while observing that one of the issues that arises is with regard to the jurisdiction of courts and power of judicial review in the matter.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Lok Sabha secretary general, had urged the court not to venture into the internal matter of discipline of another sovereign organ of the State.
He had said Parliament can internally manage disciplinary issues involving its members through its in-house procedures that are not amenable to a judicial review and hence, Moitra's plea is not maintainable.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing in the court on behalf of Moitra, had submitted that contrary to the theories floating around, the TMC leader was expelled from the Lok Sabha for sharing her parliamentary log-in credentials.
Moitra, he had said, was expelled under a rule for hacking. On December 8 last year, after a heated debate in the Lok Sabha over a panel report, during which Moitra was not allowed to speak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the TMC MP from the House for "unethical conduct". The motion was adopted by a voice vote.
