Raghav Chadha's plea against his suspension: SC issues notice to RS Secretariat
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New Delhi: In a plea filed by Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha challenging his indefinite suspension from the Rajya Sabha, the Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Upper House secretariat and called for its response by October 30.
Looking at the significance of the legal issues involved, a bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also sought assistance of Attorney General R. Venkataramani in the matter.
The bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi and lawyer Shadan Farasat, representing Chadha, that the suspension cannot extend beyond the particular session during which the decision to suspend the member was made.
During the hearing, Dwivedi said that the matter involves an issue of "national importance" and the Rajya Sabha Chairman cannot order suspension of a member of the House pending inquiry, particularly, when a committee on privileges is already seized of the investigation.
He added in the past, names of members -- who were not found to be the signatory -- were plainly dropped from the list of proposed select committee.
Dwivedi further said that he was not seeking any interim relief in the petition at the moment.
Last week, Chadha had moved the top court after he was suspended in August on charges of not obtaining consent from five Rajya Sabha MPs before including their name in a select committee.
On August 11, the Rajya Sabha had passed a motion moved by BJP MP Piyush Goyal seeking action against the AAP leader for including the names of some members of the Upper House without their consent in a proposed select committee for considering the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
Chadha was suspended on the last day of the Monsoon session for "gross violation of rules, misconduct, defiant attitude, and contemptuous conduct", pending a report by the privileges committee.
With inputs from agencies