Mahua Moitra will have to wait till January 3 before any relief as the Supreme Court adjourned her plea’s hearing to next month. The Trinamool Congress leader had filed a plea against her expulsion from Parliament.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SV Bhatti heard Moitra’s request to restore her Lok Sabha membership on Friday, and posted the case for next hearing on January 3.
The TMC leader had moved the apex court on Monday against her expulsion 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.
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.
The Ethics Committee found Moitra guilty of “unethical conduct” and contempt of the House as she had shared her Lok Sabha members’ portal credentials — user ID and password — with unauthorised people, which had an irrepressible impact on national security, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
The committee had also recommended that in view of the “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct” of Mahua Moitra, an intense, legal and institutional inquiry be initiated by the government in a time-bound manner.
In October, Jharkhand BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, on the basis of a complaint submitted by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, alleged that Moitra had asked questions in the Lok Sabha in exchange for cash and gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to target industrialist Gautam Adani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In an affidavit to the panel on October 19, Hiranandani claimed that Moitra shared with him her log-in ID and password for the Lok Sabha members’ website.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has already filed a preliminary FIR in the case.
Here Are Latest Updates in Mahua Moitra Cases:
• In wake of the security breach in Parliament, the TMC has been demanding Mahua Moitra-like action for BJP MP Pratap Simha. The Mamata Banerjee-led party has sought expulsion of Simha for facilitating the entry of at least one person who jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber and opened smoke canisters, drawing a parallel with party leader Mahua Moitra’s ouster from the House.
“Our MP Mahua Moitra was unjustly expelled for allegedly breaching national security by sharing her login credentials. Today, BJP Karnataka MP Pratap Simha put the security of the entire Parliament at risk by issuing a visitor’s pass to the intruders,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said in a post on X.
“What is stopping him from getting expelled? Why should a similar treatment not be meted out to him? What gives him the right to continue as a Parliamentarian after jeopardising the safety of fellow MPs?” the TMC said.