Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel on Monday filed his reply in the Delhi High court stating that the two youths, who have challenged their one month imprisonment, have intentionally and willfully lowered the dignity of the House by throwing pamphlets.
The response was filed to a bench of Siddharth Mridul and Nazmi Waziri after Jagdeep Rana and Rajkumar Madan filed a petition to set aside the order given by the Speaker.
In his response, Goel said that the youths had created a ruckus in the Delhi Assembly thereby disrupting the proceedings of the House. He also stated that the order given by him was according to the law and there is no illegality or impropriety in it.
Appearing for the petitioners, their counsel Pradeep Rana contended that the order suffers from vice as the same is in contravention of Article 20 of the Constitution. He also alleged “malafide intentions” on the part of the legislators who had allegedly assaulting the petitioners.
The court also directed the petitioners to file an affidavit with the names of the MLAs who had allegedly assaulted the petitioners.
Meanwhile, another writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of rule 75 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, 1997 was also filed on Monday and was tagged with another habeas corpus.
On June 28, the petitioners seated in the visitors’ gallery threw pamphlets and raised ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ slogans in the Delhi Assembly. While they were being marshalled out on the directions of Goel, AAP MLAs allegedly thrashed and injured them.
Cancel order
The petitioners had demanded that the order passed was “absolutely illegal and violates the principle of natural justice, which cannot be sustained” and thus should be cancelled.
According to them, they were in the hospital and were not given any chance to put forth their version. Both were then arrested on the order of the Speaker, who sentenced them to 30 days in prison
