New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that excluding an opposition party’s voice from the parliament is a serious matter while hearing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha’s petition challenging his indefinite suspension from the Rajya Sabha.
“Exclusion of members of the Opposition from the House is a very serious matter. He (Chadha) is a representative of a constituency. He is a representative of a viewpoint which may not be consistent with the views of the government. Care must be taken not to exclude such voices from the parliament,” the court said, according to The Hindu.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Mishra on Monday, October 30, said that indefinite suspension of an MP from the House undermines the right of people to be represented. They said the principle of proportionality should be kept in mind in such cases.
Chadha was suspended from the House starting August 11 for an indefinite period until the Privileges Committee, which is probing the matter, submits its report. His suspension came after five Rajya Sabha MPs accused Chadha of mentioning their names without their consent in the motion that sought a select committee to examine the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023. S. Phangnon Konyak, Narhari Amin, and Sudhanshu Trivedi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); M. Thambidurai of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK); and Sasmit Patra of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) levelled the allegation against the AAP MP.
The court said it doubted if Chadha’s conduct amounted to a breach of parliamentary privilege. Speaking for the Bench, the CJI said consent of fellow MPs is necessary at the stage of appointing them to a committee. While acknowledging the charge against Chadha, the CJI wondered if Chadha’s act of not informing fellow MPs whom he included in his proposal for the said committee amounted to a violation of the rules. He also pointed out that MPs are only suspended for the remainder of a particular session in the case of disruptions, wondering whether allegations against Chadha warrant an indefinite suspension.
“Is this worse than the disruption of proceedings? Is this really on a higher level? A person who disrupts the House is excluded for the rest of the session. In this case alleged infraction is that he didn’t verify. Some proportionality is now an invented part of our jurisprudence,” CJI told Attorney General for India R. Venkataramani, who represented the Rajya Sabha chairman and secretariat, according to Livelaw.
The CJI then goes on to say, “That we have lost our sense of humour in public life is a separate thing altogether… What he obviously meant by ‘sending birthday invitation cards’ is that the members could either come or not come… Does that really, really reduce the dignity of the House and cause a breach of privilege?”
Chadha’s counsel, Rakesh Dwivedi, told the court that the member had already tendered his apology and conveyed the same to the Rajya Sabha chairman. Therefore, Dwivedi said, the indefinite suspension is “patently illegal and violative of the law and constitution”.
He also informed the court that there have been 11 instances in the last 75 years where MPs included the names of their fellow MPs who were unwilling to be part of motions. And, he went on to add that those names were merely dropped without slapping a suspension order against the MPs in question.
The court asked whether the Rajya Sabha chairman would accept if Chadha was “ready and willing” to apologise. Venkataramani then said the Rajya Sabha chairperson had suspended Chadha pending the inquiry by the Privileges Committee following a resolution passed by the House itself. The matter will be next heard on November 3.