7 BJP MLAs are contesting their indefinite suspension from the Delhi Assembly; the HC has reserved its decision

Regarding the appeals filed by seven BJP MLAs contesting their permanent expulsion from the legislature for interfering with Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena’s speech at the opening of the budget session, the Delhi High Court postponed its decision on Tuesday.

Within two days, Judge Subramonium Prasad requested that any brief written responses from the parties be sent.

Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, O P Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, Jitender Mahajan, and Vijender Gupta, all BJP MLAs, were contesting their indefinite suspension from the legislature till the privileges committee’s procedures were over in court.

Prior to this, the court had requested that the Delhi Assembly’s privileges committee postpone its action against the suspended MLAs while it handled other matters.

The MLAs, represented by senior counsel Jayant Mehta, had argued that their detention till the completion of the privileges committee hearings was illegal under the relevant regulations.

Assembly officials had promised the court that the MLAs’ indefinite suspension was not an effort to quell opposition in the House and that the privileges committee action against them would be resolved quickly.

Speaking on behalf of the Delhi Assembly, senior lawyer Sudhir Nandrajog said that suspension was a “self-discipline” measure in response to the opposition lawmakers’ “series of misdemeanours”.

He had rejected the petitions, arguing that the House had the authority to decide whether to uphold its dignity and that the petitioners should have apologized to the House for creating disturbance in a similar letter they submitted to the LG.

During his speech on February 15, Saxena was repeatedly interrupted by BJP members who criticized the Arvind Kejriwal administration on several problems while highlighting the accomplishments of the AAP government.

Following that, AAP MLA Dilip Pandey presented a motion in the House calling for their suspension, which Speaker Ram Niwas Goel approved and forwarded to the privileges committee.

Apart from Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, the Leader of the Opposition, no other BJP legislators in the legislature were allowed to attend the proceedings.

Because of the delay in finalizing the budget, the session has been prolonged until the first week of March.

In their applications, the MLAs claimed that their suspension went against the principles of “proportionality” and “rationality,” as well as Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression.

“In any case, the Order of the Honorable Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is blatantly excessive, biased, and unlawful. It breaches the Petitioners’ basic and constitutional rights,” the petition, which was submitted on behalf of Mahawar, Gupta, and Bajpai via attorney Satya Ranjan Swain, said.

The argument emphasized that because this budget is the last one in its entirety before the assembly elections in 2025, the opposition members’ attendance was crucial.