HC dismisses Sanjay Singh's plea seeking PM presence in Parliament, says it's politically motivated

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh seeking direction to ensure presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament and reply the questions relating to public interest, saying the plea was "politically motivated" and an abuse of the process of law.

A vacation bench of Justices Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and C Hari Shankar said though such pleas deserve to be dismissed with heavy costs, it was refraining from imposing any cost. The court warned Singh, an AAP leader that "adventurism" of this nature may not always meet such a lenient response.

"Needless to say the present writ petition cannot be a platform for initiating a roving and fishing enquiry into the sittings of legislators in Parliament. Neither do we find any material, in the writ petition, calling for issuance of any such direction to the Speaker," the bench said.

It further said that the petition was "nothing but an abuse of the process of law and is ex facie, politically motivated".

"It has consumed valuable judicial time and effort, which could have been expended in adjudicating disputes which genuinely deserve a quietus. Such abuse of the judicial process deserves to be deprecated, and we do so," the bench said.

During the hearing yesterday, Advocate Rajesh Gogna, appearing for the Centre, said the Prime Minister and Speaker of Lok Sabha cannot be made a party in the plea and it has to be done through their respective offices.

Singh had sought direction to the Lok Sabha Speaker to take appropriate steps to ensure presence of all the MPs including the Prime Minister at least 75 per cent of the sittings.

The petition, filed through advocate Mohd Irshad, also sought direction to the President to ascertain feasibility of 'no work no pay' for the MPs, if their presence is less than 50 per cent in the House.

Singh had arrayed as parties, the Union of India through Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India through the Prime Minister of India and the Speaker through Lok Sabha secretary.

Rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra, on June 11, had also moved the high court with a similar plea that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal be directed to increase his attendance in the legislative Assembly as he has allegedly skipped most of the sittings.

The plea was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justices Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and C Hari Shankar which asked the counsel to file the petition and allowed it to be listed for hearing.

Earlier, Kapil Mishra's advocates Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and Ashwani Kumar Dubey had claimed that the rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA has contended that in the 27 Assembly sittings held last year, Kejriwal was present only in seven.

"During question hour, he was never present in Assembly in the last 40 months. This shows how serious the Chief Minister is in discussing matters related to the people of Delhi and their development and performing the duties expected of them," they had said.

The lawyer had also sought directions to the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the Assembly to ensure that the chief minister as well as the other MLAs have 75 per cent attendance in the House sessions, saying that the country needs "dedicated and full-time" lawmakers and "not part-time" legislators.