NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the hearing on a plea of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra challenging her expulsion from the Lower House till January 3 next year.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, one of the two-judge bench also comprising Justice SVN Bhatti, said that he had not seen the files at all and, hence needed some time to go through it. "I would like to go through the file. We can have on January 3," he said. Three days after her expulsion from Lom Sabha following being found guilty by the Ethics panel in the 'cash-for-query' scam case, 49-year-old TMC leader Mahua Moitra on Monday knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court against her expulsion.
She moved the Apex Court seeking enforcement of her fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution. "Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and former Lok Sabha MP, Mahua Moitra has filed a petition before the Supreme Court and challenge her expulsion from the lower house of the Parliament and seek relief, in the 'cash-for-query' scam case," her lawyer said.
"The ethics committee order is unfair, unjust and arbitrary," her petition said. The Ethics Committee had committed a severe illegality and she was denied the principles of natural justice during the committee's investigation against her plea, it said. She, however, claimed innocence in the case and blasted and slammed the Ethics Committee's report, which said she accepted gifts and cash from a businessman to ask questions in Parliament to corner the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
On December 8, after a heated debate in the Lok Sabha over the panel report -- Moitra was not allowed to speak --, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to expel the TMC MP from the House for "unethical conduct," which was adopted by a voice vote.
(With inputs from PTI)
