The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP MLAs fined for contempt of House

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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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New Delhi

BJP MLAs fined for contempt of House

Staff Reporter

Speaker ‘reprimands’ Vijay Jolly and Karan Singh Tanwar, penalizes Rs.100 each

Their behaviour during L-G’s address ‘undignified’
BJP leaders term the action ‘one-sided’

NEW DELHI: In a decision that has been hailed by the Delhi Government as “historic” and by the Opposition BJP as “one-sided”, Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh on Tuesday “reprimanded” BJP MLAs Vijay Jolly and Karan Singh Tanwar and fined them Rs.100 each for the manner in which they protested during Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna’s address in the Assembly on Monday.

As soon as Question Hour got over, the Speaker said the undignified conduct of some MLAs had caused a lot of pain and personal anguish to him and was the biggest setback for a person who had been an elected representative for the past 50 years.

Stating that the House would not hesitate to take strict action to defend its dignity, the Speaker said be it suspension of membership or disqualifying them from all future sittings of the House, every option can be exercised to maintain the decorum.

Citing “Practice and Procedure of Parliament: Kaul and Shakdhar” that plays a guiding role in conduct of the House, the Speaker said: “It is contempt of the House to obstruct any officer of the House …… in the execution of his duty.”

He said contempt of the House had taken place under Delhi Assembly Rule 66 (4) and, as such, under Rule 77 (1) (b) the two BJP MLAs were reprimanded and fined Rs.100 each. Mr. Jolly has also been fined Rs. 500 under Rule 78 for filing a breach of privilege motion against Congress MLA Bhisham Sharma which the Speaker found ‘groundless’. The BJP legislators vehemently opposed the Speaker’s order and staged a walk-out.

Later, Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, Leader of Opposition Jagdish Mukhi and chief whip Sahib Singh Chauhan denounced the decision. Dr. Vardhan said an objective probe should have been conducted and the BJP legislators heard out before the order was issued.

Stating that they were not given a hearing, he charged that if what happened on Monday was unfortunate, Tuesday’s developments marked a “black day” for the House.

Prof. Mukhi said he agreed with the Speaker that what happened on Monday was shameful. But he questioned why Bhisham Sharma was let off even though he had allegedly roughed up Mr. Jolly. “This is not the first time that Bhisham has attacked our MLAs. Last year he had manhandled Mr. Chauhan and prior to that he had attacked former Minister Harsharan Singh Balli. Still no action has been taken against him,” he charged.

Stating that the norms of proceeding had been violated as the BJP legislators were not given a hearing, Prof. Mukhi charged that a “one-sided” approach was adopted at the instance of the Chief Minister.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit hailed the decision as “historic” and said the manner in which the BJP legislators conducted themselves in the House was reprehensible. Ms. Dikshit said the Cabinet had met informally and “collectively condemned” the behaviour of BJP MLAs.

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