'Will you apologise to L-G,' Delhi HC asks seven suspended BJP MLAs

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked seven BJP MLAs, suspended from the Delhi Assembly for interrupting the lieutenant governor's address, if they were willing to apologise to him.

Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the senior counsel appearing for the suspended legislators to take instructions on this aspect after the senior lawyer for the assembly said a similar approach was adopted in the Supreme Court in the case of MP Raghav Chadha.

Appearing for the assembly, senior advocate Sudhir Nandrajog said the matter is not political and it involves the dignity of the office of the LG.

"I spoke to the speaker. He also suggested the route followed by the Supreme Court in Raghav Chadha's case. If members were to come and meet the speaker and apologise to the LG, the whole thing could be put through," he said.

Senior advocate Jayant Mehta, appearing for the MLAs, said there was no difficulty in apologising to the LG.

The court asked the petitioners' counsel to come back in the post-lunch session with instructions.

The seven BJP MLAs -- Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, O P Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, Jitender Mahajan and Vijender Gupta -- had approached the high court on Monday challenging their indefinite suspension from the Assembly for interrupting the Lieutenant Governor's address.

They said their suspension till the conclusion of proceedings before the privileges committee was in violation of the applicable rules and the MLAs were consequently unable to attend the ongoing budget session.

The BJP MLAs had interrupted Lt Governor (LG) VK Saxena multiple times during his address on February 15 as he highlighted the achievements of the AAP government. They sought to attack the Arvind Kejriwal government on a range of issues.