New Delhi: Seeking to resolve the stand-off over the suspension of seven BJP MLAs, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked them whether they were prepared to apologise to the lieutenant governor for repeatedly interrupting his address to the legislative assembly that prompted action against them.
Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the senior counsel for the suspended legislators to take instructions on this after the lawyer representing the assembly said a similar approach was adopted in the Supreme Court to end the suspension of Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. Appearing for the Assembly, senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog said the matter is not political and involves the dignity of the office of the LG.
“I spoke to the speaker. He also suggested the route followed by the Supreme Court in Raghav Chadha’s case. If members were to come and meet the speaker and apologise to the LG, the whole thing could be put through,” he said.
Senior advocate Jayant Mehta, appearing for the lawmakers, said they had no problem apologising to the L-G.
The court asked the petitioners’ counsel to come back in the post-lunch session with instructions.
Subsequently, the court was informed there was some “development” in the matter, following which the petitions were directed to be called for consideration on February 21.
The seven BJP MLAs -- Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, O P Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, Jitender Mahajan and Vijender Gupta -- approached the high court on Monday challenging their indefinite suspension from the Assembly for interrupting L-G V K Saxena’s address.
They said their suspension till the conclusion of proceedings before the privileges committee was in violation of the applicable rules and the MLAs were consequently unable to attend the ongoing Budget session. The BJP MLAs had interrupted Saxena multiple times during his address on February 15 as he highlighted the achievements of the AAP government, while they attacked the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation on a range of issues.
The petitions by the MLAs said their suspension violates Article 19(1)(a) (right to freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution of India and the rights and privileges of the MLAs as well as the principle of “proportionality” and “rationality”.