Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The counsel for TMC leader Mahua Moitra on Wednesday mentioned her plea against being expelled from the Lok Sabha before a bench headed by seniormost judge Justice SK Kaul as the CJI was heading a Constitution bench.
The CJI later took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, her counsel, and said he would look into the listing aspect at lunch during the day. “This is a member being expelled from the Lok Sabha,” Singhvi said.
“The matter may not have been registered… If an email was sent, I would look at it right away. Please send it,” the CJI said. Moitra had moved the court on Monday after the Lok Sabha adopted a report by its ethics committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interests.
On December 8, after a heated debate in the Lok Sabha over the panel report during which Moitra was not allowed to speak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the TMC MP for “unethical conduct” which was adopted by a voice vote.
The committee found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House as she shared her Lok Sabha members’ portal credentials — user ID and password — with unauthorised people, which had an irrepressible impact on national security, Joshi said.
The committee had also recommended that in view of the “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct” of Moitra, an intense, legal and institutional inquiry be initiated by the government in a time-bound manner.
The motion moved by Joshi said Moitra’s “conduct has further been found to be unbecoming as an MP for accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest, which is a serious misdemeanour” on her part.
Reacting sharply to her expulsion, Moitra had equated the action with hanging by a “kangaroo court” and alleged that a parliamentary panel was being weaponised by the government to force the opposition into submission.
In October, Dubey, on the basis of a complaint submitted by SC lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, alleged that Moitra had asked questions in the House in exchange for cash and gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to mount an attack on industrialist Gautam Adani and PM Narendra Modi. The CBI has already filed a preliminary FIR in the case.
Also in top court
CBI told to probe 40 FIRs on Bitcoin scam
In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered transfer of over 40 FIRs related to the Bitcoin cryptocurrency scam to the CBI for further investigation and shifted the trial to a Delhi court. Observing that the accused, who are on anticipatory bail, cannot be allowed to ‘stultify’ the ongoing probe, the top court vacated its August 30, 2019 order granting them the relief of pre-arrest bail. A bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said now the accused, if not granted regular bail by other courts, will have to seek the relief from the Delhi High Court. It said the trial of cases wherein the FIRs have been registered will now be conducted at a special CBI court at Rouse Avenue in New Delhi.
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