HC to hear plea of two men who raised slogans inside Assembly

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday posted for Tuesday a plea of two men who were sent to 30 days’ jail by the Delhi Assembly Speaker for throwing pamphlets and raising slogans in the House.

A division bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Najmi Waziri said the two accused had filed habeas corpus plea and did not challenge the rules under which the decision was taken by the Speaker.

The court, questioning issue of maintainability of the plea, posted the same for Tuesday and granted petitioners’ advocate time to decide their next course of action.

In June last week, the Delhi Assembly was witness to a drama when two visitors threw pamphlets and raised slogans demanding resignation of Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj had then moved a motion against the two – Jagdeep Rana and Ranjan Kumar. Consequently, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel sentenced them to one-month rigorous imprisonment.

Challenging the Speaker’s June 28 decision, the accused allege that the order was “illegal”, as it was issued without granting them an opportunity to be heard.

Seeking their release, they said: “The petitioners had no intention to breach the privilege of the legislative assembly or to commit contempt of the same. The petitioners had no intention to cause any damage to property or to the legislators/staff present inside the legislative assembly on that fateful day.

“The intention of the petitioners was only to draw the attention of the government to issues, being exploited by the Opposition.”