Among 8 BJP MLAs in the Delhi Assembly, 7 MLAs who were suspended for disrupting Lieutenant Governor’s address moved Delhi HIgh Court challenging the decision. Reportedly, the High Court allowed urgent listing of the matter today.
Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta mentioned the matter before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora. The Senior Advocate contended that the MLAs were suspended wrongly and their right to participate in the proceedings were affected.
He added that the motion to suspend the MLAs is unconstitutional and opposed to the rules. Jayant Mehta said that at the most, the MLAs could be suspended for a period of three days but the suspension is indefinitely.
The BJP MLAs were suspended on Friday for interrupting the Lieutenant Governor’s address on Thursday, the first day of the budget session. Reportedly, the BJP MLAs had protested during Governor VK Saxena’s speech forcing him to stop his address within less than half an hour.
Dilip Pandey, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA proposed action against the BJP MLAs, leading Speaker Ram Niwas Goel to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee. Consecutively, the House passed the proposal to suspend seven BJP MLAs, except Leader of Opposition Ramveer Singh Bidhuri, from participating in the House proceedings until the committee submits its report.
Following, the Speaker directed the seven members namely Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, OP Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Vajpayi, Jitender Mahajan, and Vijender Gupta to leave the assembly.
AAP MLA Dilip Pandey alleged that the BJP MLAs were tarnishing the government’s image and ridiculing the House in front of the media. He further accused the BJP of wasting Delhi’s tax revenue by obstructing the House’s functioning.
After the suspension, the BJP MLAs, along with the opposition leader, protested inside the Assembly by raising slogans and demonstrated outside the Chief Minister’s office.