HC to examine jailed MPs' right to attend House

Against the backdrop of jailed Suresh Kalmadi seeking its permission to attend Lok Sabha, the Delhi High Court Monday said it will examine whether an MP arrested in a criminal case is entitled to attend the House.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna decided to examine the issue while slating for hearing on Tuesday the petition of Kalmadi, Congress Lok Sabha member from Pune and sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief, for permission to attend Parliament.

Kalmadi moved the division bench of the high court, challenging the order of its single-judge bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, who rejected his plea for such permission, saying it as a "an attempt to get fresh air outside the prison."

The bench asked senior counsel Ashok Desai, representing Kalmadi, to make his submissions on "whether an MP is entitled to attend Parliament session when a criminal case is pending against him and he is also denied bail by the trial court."

The bench also made it clear to Desai it would not go into Kalmadi's past attendance records etc inside Parliament.

Desai submitted to the bench it is the constitutional duty of a parliamentarian to attend the House and this duty is also linked to some privileges conferred on them under Article 105 of the Constitution.