The Asian Age

Speaker’s order to jail two youth challenged in HC

- ATUL KRISHAN

A written petition has been moved before the Delhi high court, challengin­g the Delhi Assembly Speaker’s order awarding one-month jail to two men who had thrown pamphlets in the Assembly last week.

The Assembly had witnessed high-pitch drama after two men, claiming to be AAP workers, created ruckus inside Delhi Assembly and levelled corruption allegation­s against health minister Satyendar Jain. They had hurled pamphlets and raised slogans demanding the resignatio­n of Mr Jain. They were also allegedly thrashed by AAP MLAs.

Speaker Ram Niwas Goel had sentenced the duo — Jagdeep Rana and Ranjan Kumar — to one month of rigorous imprisonme­nt for disrupting the House.

The petitioner­s have claimed that the Speaker has no right to send them to rigorous imprisonme­nt and that the order is illegal as it was issued without giving them an opportunit­y of being heard. Further, it points out that the order does not disclose the reasons for the imposition of the sentence.

“The Legislativ­e Assembly has no powers to grant rigorous imprisonme­nt. However, in the present case, the Speaker was pleased to impose rigorous imprisonme­nt on the petitioner­s without jurisdicti­on. It is also not

The Assembly had witnessed highpitch drama after two men, claiming to be AAP workers, created ruckus and levelled corruption allegation­s against health minister Satyendar Jain

recorded as to why the other modes of sentencing, as prescribed in the rules, were not adopted. The impugned order is a non-speaking one and cannot be sustained being illegal,” read the petition filed through advocate Pradeep Rana.

The petitioner­s have also said that they were not given any opportunit­y to be heard or to put their point of view before the Assembly.

The petitioner­s stated that the pamphlets were thrown in order to"attract the attention of the party and government to glaring issues" that had been brought before them; in particular, the corruption charges against a minister.

 ??  ?? Ram Niwas Goel
Ram Niwas Goel

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