Delhi court allows Engineer Rashid to attend parliament in custody

Rashid’s plea was heard by a bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Anup Bhambhani. While Justice Chaudhary had held that Rashid has “no right, duty, entitlement or privilege, as it may be called, to attend the parliament proceedings while in lawful custody,” Justice Bhambhani took a divergent position.

Justice Bhambhani clearly held that the only costs payable by Rashid would be towards jail van expenses and escort vehicle expenses at Rs 1,036 and Rs 1,020 per day, respectively, and is not required to pay for the police escort.

The police had estimated a per-day cost of around Rs 1.45 lakh for Rashid to attend Parliament, to be paid by him. In March this year, the Delhi HC, while allowing the MP to attend Parliament during the Budget session, had imposed the condition that the expenses for Rashid’s travel and other arrangements shall be borne by him while he is in the state’s custody.

Justice Bhambhani held that the “only legitimate expense that (Rashid) can be asked to bear is the cost of transportation for taking him from prison to Parliament and back; and the State’s demand that (Rashid) must foot the charges for all police officers, who are public servants, and who the state says are required to accompany (Rashid), is wholly unjustified and deserves to be quashed.”

He has been lodged in Tihar jail since 2019 in an eight-year-old terror funding case.

He was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the NIA case lodged in 2017 against Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and other “secessionist and separatist” leaders, and a special NIA court in Delhi framed charges against Rashid in March 2022.

In March this year, the Delhi High Court, while allowing the MP to attend Parliament during the Budget session, had imposed the condition that the expenses for Rashid’s travel and other arrangements shall be borne by him while he is in the state’s custody.