SC seeks response from Lok Sabha Secretariat on Mahua Moitra's plea against expulsion

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna Dipankar Datta posted the matter for hearing in the week commencing from March 11.

The bench asked the Secretariat to file a response in two weeks and Moitra to respond to the affidavit in three weeks.

As senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked the apex court to allow Moitra to attend Lok Sabha proceedings in the meantime as an interim measure, the bench declined to pass an order in this regard.

"Let me argue on interim relief. I may be allowed to take part in proceedings," Singhvi said. To this, the bench said that it is not expressing anything on the application for interim relief at the present juncture.

"No, no. We will take it up when listed," the top court said.

Moitra was MP from the Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal before her expulsion.

During the hearing, Singhvi argued that the only concrete finding against Moitra in the ethics committee report was that she had unauthorisedly shared the login credentials of her MP portal with third parties.

There is no rule prohibiting the sharing of login credentials, Singhvi said, adding that it is a standard practice followed by many MPs, who delegate their work to Secretaries and assistants to upload questions.

Justice Khanna asked Singhvi, "So you are accepting that you shared the OTP with Hiranandani?"

Senior counsel replied, "As every parliamentarian does with their secretaries or people they delegate work to..."

Moitra had approached the top court challenging her expulsion from the Lok Sabha.

Moitra was on December 8, 2023, expelled from the Lok Sabha after a discussion on the report of the Ethics Committee in the 'cash for query' that was tabled in the Lower House.

Moitra, who was not allowed to speak during the discussion inside the House, said that the Ethics committee broke every rule.

The expelled Lok Sabha MP alleged that she has been found guilty of breaching a code of ethics that 'does not exist'.

Moitra further alleged that the findings are solely based on the written testimonies of two private citizens whose versions contradict each other in material terms and her right to cross-examine them was snatched.

"None of whom I was allowed to cross-examine. One of the two private citizens is my estranged partner, who with malafide intention, masqueraded as a common citizen in front of the committee. The two testimonies have been used to hang me there at polar opposites to each other," she said.

The Ethics Committee report probing 'Unethical Conduct' of the TMC MP had recommended that Moitra "may be expelled" from the Lok Sabha and called for an "intense, legal, institutional inquiry" by the central government in a "time-bound manner".

The report was adopted by a 6:4 majority in the panel last month. The report on Moitra's cash-for-query case revealed that she visited the UAE four times from 2019 to 2023 while her login was accessed several times. (ANI)