‘MPs’ expulsion non-justiciable’

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee told the House on Friday that the issue of the expulsion of 11 MPs in the cash-for-questions scam was non-justiciable as ‘‘votes given by the honorable members cannot be questioned in any judicial proceedings’’. As a result, the Secretariat did not accept the Supreme Court notice to the Speaker on the issue nor would he respond to it, he said.

The Speaker informed the House that writ petitions had been filed in the Delhi High Court, and since transferred to the Supreme Court by the expelled members—Raja Ram Pal had filed a petition against the expulsion in the apex court.

Chatterjee said that he had convened an all-party leaders’ meeting on January 20, at which two legal luminaries, F S Nariman and T R Andhyarujina, were present. The leaders had unanimously endorsed the position taken by him not to respond to the court notices or appear in court, he said.

Only V K Malhotra of the BJP had suggested that the decision should be communicated to the court through a lawyer. The Speaker noted that the decision taken by the political parties had also been endorsed at a conference of presiding officers on February 4.