The Delhi High Court today set aside an order passed by Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel suspending seven BJP Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the house.
Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the judgment after the MLAs approached the High Court challenging the speaker’s decision. The court had earlier reserved its verdict on February 27.
Appearing for the suspended MLAs, Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta had submitted that the suspension till the conclusion of the proceedings before the privileges committee was in violation of the appropriate Rules. Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Sudhir Nandrajog appearing for the Delhi Assembly opposed the petitions and said that the suspension of MLAs was a self-discipline mechanism.
Among 8 BJP MLAs in the Delhi Assembly, 7 MLAs were suspended on the allegations that they disrupted the address of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena. The suspended BJP MLAs are Vijender Gupta, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Anil Kumar Bajpai, Om Prakash Sharma, Jitender Mahajan, Mohan Singh Bisht and Abhay Verma.
The suspended BJP MLAs claimed that Speaker Ram Niwas Goel’s decision to suspend them was grossly unconstitutional since almost the entire opposition was suspended from the assembly thereby, silencing any voice of accountability.
They further argued that the motion moved by AAP MLA Dilip Pandey was maliciously engineered to disable the opposition members to take part in the discussions on crucial businesses that were to be discussed and to also exclude them from participating in the budget session of the Delhi Assembly.
The BJP MLAs further argued that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was turning their suspension into a political issue by comparing it to suspension of AAP MP Raghav Chadha from the Parliament.
Earlier, they had told the court that they had apologised to the Lieutenant Governor and who had accepted their apology. Considering the submission, the bench had asked the MLAs to meet the Speaker. Nonetheless, since the matter was not resolved, the High Court heard the pleas on merits.