HC to hear plea of duo jailed on Delhi Speaker's order

The Delhi High Court will on Monday hear a plea of two men who are in jail on Delhi Speaker's order.

Both of them have challenged Delhi Assembly's Speaker's order to send them to jail for throwing pamphlets and sloganeering in the house during a session.

The Delhi High Court on July 11 had sought the Delhi Assembly Speaker's response on this regard.

The court, which had questioned the maintainability of the plea a day before, issued notice to Speaker Ram Niwas Goel and the Director General of Prisons after the petitioners' lawyer said in matters of alleged "illegal detention", the detaining authority's stand has to be sought.

The Speaker on June 28 had sent the two petitioners, Jagdeep Rana and Rajan Kumar Madan, to 30 days of rigorous imprisonment for "contempt and breach of privilege" of the House.

The petitioners had thrown pamphlets demanding the resignation of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

The duo in the plea told the court that the Speaker took the decision without hearing them and hence their sentencing is "absolutely illegal and violates the principles of natural justice".

Seeking their immediate release, they have also contended that under the rules, rigorous imprisonment cannot be awarded.

Jagdeep, who claims to be the Vice President of AAP's Delhi Unit, and Madan, who says he is incharge of the AAP for the states of Punjab and Chhattisgarh, said that their action was only to draw the AAP leaders' attention to the "glaring issue of corruption" plaguing the party, and had no intention of breaching the privilege or commit contempt of the legislative assembly, damage any property or harm any legislator.