NEW DELHI, Dec 14
The Supreme Court will Friday take up Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra’s plea challenging her expulsion from Lok Sabha last week after the House adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that held her guilty of indulging in “unethical conduct” and committing “serious misdemeanours”.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti will hear Moitra’s plea challenging her expulsion from the Lower House. On Wednesday, Moitra had urged the Supreme Court to list her plea challenging the expulsion for hearing urgently.
Senior Advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Moitra, requested Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud to take up the matter either Thursday or Friday. The CJI then asked him to send an email to the Registrar, as is the standard practice, so that he can look into it.
Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha on December 8 after the members adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that found her “guilty of unethical conduct”.
The report also called for “an intense, legal, institutional inquiry” by the government “in a time-bound manner” into the cash-for-query allegations against her.
In October, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, based on a complaint by Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai, had alleged that the Krishnanagar MP had asked questions in Parliament in exchange for cash and gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani whose business interests conflicted with those of industrialist Gautam Adani.
In an interview with correspondent on October 27, Moitra admitted she gave her Parliament login and password details to Hiranandani, but denied taking any cash from him, as alleged by Supreme Court advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai in his complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
