New Delhi, September 26
The Supreme Court today referred former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s petition to a larger Bench, challenging his expulsion from the Assembly. The SC also issued notice to the state government and the Vidhan Sabha.
A Bench, comprising Justices S B Sinha and Cyriac Joseph, which heard the petition, however refused to issue notice to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, stating that there was no need for it at this stage. The issue would now come up on October 3 before a three-judge Bench to be constituted by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan in view of the Constitutional aspects involved in the Special Leave Petition (SLP), which has questioned the scope and powers of the Assembly for expelling a member for alleged corruption and on an issue that has nothing to do with breach of privilege.
Besides challenging his September 10 expulsion, Amarinder Singh has also maintained that the September 15 Punjab and Haryana High Court order had virtually dismissed his petition by posting the hearing for December 1, without giving relief to him in the form of a stay.
Today, the SC Bench also issued notice to the special committee of the Vidhan Sabha, which had found him guilty of corruption in the Amritsar land development scam, through its Chairman and the Attorney General. The notice to the Assembly would be served on the speaker and to the state government on the chief secretary.
At the outset, the judges said it was unfortunate that the petitioner did not approach the Supreme Court directly because Constitutional aspects were involved.
The SLP had been listed for mentioning yesterday before a Bench, comprising Justices C K Thakker and D K Jain but had to be referred to another Bench as Justice Jain, who has earlier been at the Punjab and Haryana HC, recused himself from the case.
Two others indicted by the Assembly committee in the land exemption case- former local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and the then chairman of the Amritsar Improvement Trust Jugal Kishore Sharma-have also filed writ petitions in the apex
court and these would also go to the larger Bench now.
Amarinder Singh also sought transfer of his case at the HC to some other state. For this, the judges told him to file a separate petition. The former Chief Minister and the two other Congress leaders were represented by their counsel U U Lalit, Abhishek Singhvi, P P Rao and Atul Nanda. Advocates Harish Salve and Ajay Pal appeared for the respondents.
The Punjab Assembly has “arrogated unto itself the power and jurisdiction to find a man guilty in law, pre-judged his case, directed the investigative machinery of the state to recover the ill-gotten wealth” allegedly amounting to Rs 200 crore, Amarinder Singh contended in the SLP.
The scam involves 32.1 acres of land exempted from acquisition from a Town Development Scheme of the Amritsar Improvement Trust.
It was further contended in the SLP that the punitive powers of the state legislature were restricted to incidents of breach of privilege or contempt of the House by a member and could not extended to an act committed outside the House and unconnected with the functioning of the House.
Also, if such actions were left unchecked, then every state legislature would have the liberty to expel members of the Opposition by sheer strength of brute majority and to declare their seats vacant, derailing their political career and public image, the SLP said.
