New Delhi
The Supreme Court stay on the notices to West Bengal’s top officials on Monday came after it took note of the submissions of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the State.
Parliamentary privileges are not available to an MP for political activities and can be invoked only when a lawmaker is obstructed while discharging duties as an MP while attending the House, Sibal contended.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra then fixed the plea for hearing after four weeks.
The Lok Sabha Privileges Committee had summoned Chief Secretary Bhagwati Prasad Gopalika, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar and others, including the DM and the SP of North 24 Parganas district, at 10.30 am. The CJI’s bench took the pleas of West Bengal officials as the first matter on urgent mentioning by the senior officials.
BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar had on February 15 filed the complaint of “misconduct” against the State government officials. Sibal termed the complaint of police atrocities by the MP as false and said he can produce the videos showing that the political activists of the BJP leader “attacked” police officials. Majumdar was injured in the clash with the police personnel and had to be hospitalised.
Sibal said the prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed in the Sandeshkhali area and the BJP MP and his supporters violated them.
Both Sibal and Singhvi also pointed out that the officials summoned by the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee were not present at the place of the alleged incident.
“Privileges are meant to protect your work as an MP. Otherwise, there will be a breach of privileges in every case, nobody can be arrested,” Singhvi said. When the bench asked whether the notices were issued because the MP got injured, the lawyers said the “video shows that he (the MP) jumps on the bonnet of a police car. His colleagues in the BJP pulled him. He is taken to the hospital by police”.
Representing the Lok Sabha Secretariat, senior lawyer Devasish Bharukha, opposed the grant of stay, saying this is the first sitting of the Privileges Committee and the officials are not being accused of anything.
“This is a regular process. Once an MP sends a notice and the speaker thinks there is something to look into then notices are issued,” the counsel said, adding it was a “threshold stage”.
The MP and others were stopped from entering Sandeshkhali, where women have been agitating over alleged atrocities committed against them by Trinamool Congress leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides. While Shahjahan is absconding, his aides have been arrested. Sandeshkhali is a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
Shahjahan has been absconding after a mob, allegedly affiliated to him, attacked Enforcement Directorate officials who had gone to search his premises in connection with a corruption case.
Meanwhile, he Lok Sabha’s Privileges Committee, which was to take up BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar’s complaint against the West Bengal government officials, could not meet on Monday due to lack of a quorum. A few of BJP MPs, who are the committee’s members, also did not turn up. Sources said only three MPs, including the committee’s chairperson Sunil Kumar Singh besides Dilip Ghosh and Kalyan Banerjee, arrived for the meeting while one more MP chose to leave after putting in his signature.
MEANWHILE
The Supreme Court also refused to entertain a PIL seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT probe into the violence in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali village, saying the incidents cannot be compared to the savagery in Manipur, where the apex court is monitoring the probes. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih said the Calcutta High Court is already seized of the matter. “The local high court will be the best to assess the situation. Let there be no dual forums,” the bench said while granting liberty to the PIL petitioner to approach the high court.
