BJP MLA Vijender Gupta moves court against suspension from Delhi assembly

In his plea filed through advocate Satya Ranjan Swain, Vijender Gupta, the Rohini MLA, said the act of suspension is unjust, unfair, unreasonable and against the tenets of the settled position of law but also violative of the powers and privileges of the members of the House as enshrined under Article 194 of the Constitution of India.

Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Vijender Gupta on Thursday moved the Delhi high court on Thursday against his one-year suspension from the Delhi assembly for allegedly interfering with proceedings.

BJP MLA Vijender Gupta. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The matter was mentioned before a bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad by senior advocate Jayant Mehta, following which the court agreed to list the matter for Friday.

In his plea filed through advocate Satya Ranjan Swain, Gupta, the Rohini MLA, said the act of suspension is unjust, unfair, unreasonable and against the tenets of the settled position of law but also violative of the powers and privileges of the members of the House as enshrined under Article 194 of the Constitution of India.

In his petition, Gupta said that on March 20, finance minister Kailash Gahlot came out with a statement claiming that the Union home ministry deliberately delayed the Delhi Budget by not giving its approval to it. He said the same statement was also put out by another minister, Gopal Rai, on his Twitter handle.

Gupta in his petition said that after he noticed this, he submitted a notice for calling a breach of privilege motion against Gahlot before the next day’s session had begun. However, he was not allowed to make a detailed statement.

Gupta said that Speaker Ram Niwas Goel repeatedly interrupted him, before he marshalled him out.

“After the Petitioner was marshalled out, taking back his own Order, the Speaker called the Petitioner back and allowed him to make a statement. However, surprisingly after 10 seconds, his microphone was switched off and he was not allowed to make a statement. So the Petitioner went to the well of the House to show the provision of the Assembly Rules to the speaker,” the plea said.

Gupta said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Sanjeev Jha proposed the Petitioner’s suspension from the House for a period of one year. The Speaker then put the motion to vote by voice vote and ordered the suspension of the Petitioner without any justification and again marshalled out the Petitioner.