Court to hear Tuesday Kalmadi plea to attend parliament
August 29th, 2011 - 6:38 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) Jailed Congress MP and former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi has approached a two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court challenging the court’s refusal to allow him to attend parliament. The plea would be heard Tuesday.
The division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna Monday took note of his plea against a single-judge ruling earlier and asked whether a member of parliament facing a criminal case was entitled to attend session.
Justice Misra said: “We are really not concerned about your attendance, participation and voting in parliament.”
The question before the court was “whether an MP can be entitled to attend parliament proceedings when a criminal case is pending against him and the trial court has also dismissed his bail petition”, said Justice Misra, adding that that they would hear the case Tuesday.
Kalmadi is in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on charges of corruption linked to the 2010 mega sporting event.
Turning down Kalmadi’s application earlier, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw imposed a cost on him and asked him to deposit the money in the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
“The petitioner is not entitled to the relief claimed, there is no merit in the petition. The same is dismissed with cost of Rs.1 lakh to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund,” said Endlaw in his Aug 5 order.
Advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the single-judge bench treated his client with common people despite the fact that he has parliamentary privileges.
He submitted that Kalmadi has a constitutional duty to represent his constituency in parliament.
“Merely because the petitioner is a parliamentarian does not entitle him to claim any exception from the effect of being in detention. The petitioner has not made out any case necessitating him to attend parliament,” Justice Endlaw said.
“It is not the case where the vote of the petitioner on any aspect is vital or that without such participation the citizens of his constituency would suffer,” the order said.
“Allowing the petitioner to attend parliament, even if in judicial custody, would certainly provide him respite from imprisonment,” the court said.
Kalmadi was arrested April 25. The CBI May 20 filed its first charge sheet in the corruption case against him and 10 others.
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Tags: ashok, common people, commonwealth games, constitutional duty, criminal case, delhi high court, desai, dipak, division bench, lakh, member of parliament, misra, organising committee, parliament proceedings, parliamentarian, petitioner, sahai, sanjiv, suresh kalmadi, tihar jail