"Since the matter involves interpretation of constitutional provisions, we are referring it to a five-judge Constitution Bench," a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice YK Sabharwal ruled on the plea by Raja Ram Pal of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one of the 11 MPs caught in the sting in December last year and expelled.

Notice was also issued to the Election Commission, though the court declined to restrain it from holding by-elections to the 10 Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha seat that had fallen vacant after the expulsion of the MPs. Six of them belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three to the BSP and one each to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.

The Bench issued notice to Attorney General Milon K Banerjee to assist the court in deciding the important question of law raised in the petition of Pal, who alone among the 11 has approached it.

The Bench said the petition required interpretation of Article 105 of the Constitution - whether it provided for the expulsion of a MP for reasons other than those contemplated in the Constitution or the Representation of the People Act (RPA).

The petitioner assailed his expulsion on the ground that Parliament did not have the power to remove a member caught in a sting operation without giving him sufficient opportunity to explain his conduct.

The petitioner contended that the Constitution provided for disqualification of a member only on the grounds of defection. Even the RPA did not have any provision to expel a member caught in a sting operation, he maintained.
 

Somnath calls for all-party meet to discuss HC notice
New Delhi, January 10
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has called for an all-party meeting here on January 20 to discuss the situation arising out of the Delhi High Court notice to the Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha, Election Commission and the Centre on the expulsion of MPs in the cash-for-query case.

Sources in Parliament secretariat said the Speaker had convened the meeting to ascertain the views of all political parties and the stand to be taken to the notice.

They said even legal experts had been asked to attend the meeting to give their views on the issue to facilitate the legislators to take a stand. Mr Chatterjee had stated that courts had no jurisdiction in the matter. 

The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notices to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats, Election Commission and the Centre on the petitions by eight of the 11 MPs challenging their expulsion in the scam.

The expelled MPs who moved the plea include Mr Chhattarpal Singh Lodha (Rajya Sabha), Mr Suresh Chandel (Hamirpur), Mr Pradeep Gandhi (Rajnandgaon), Mr Yashwant G Mahajan (Jalgaon), Mr M.K. Anna Saheb Patil (Erandol) and Mr Chandra Pratap Singh (Sidhi), (all BJP), RJD's Manoj Kumar (Palamu) and Congress' Ram Sevak Singh (Gwalior), (all Lok Sabha). The order of December 23, 2005, to expel 11 MPs from Parliament was “illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional”, the petitioners argued.

The petitioners have also sought directions to the Election Commission not to conduct any polls in these constituencies till the final decision was taken. The Pawan Bansal committee, which looked into the matter, did not give them a chance to redress their grievances, they said. They said they had been victimised by certain persons allegedly representing the media and thereafter, they were punished by the Speaker and the Union Government merely on the basis of the media reports. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had acted in haste and expelled them without giving due consideration to the privileges enjoyed by the petitioners as the Members of Parliament, said the petition. 

The respondents had ignored the principles of law and natural justice while constituting the committee and calling upon it to investigate the matter on the basis of the evidence furnished by the “vested interests” who had been motivated by financial gains and cheap publicity, the petition said.

In all, 11 MPs were expelled from Parliament after “Operation Duryodhan”, which showed them allegedly accepting bribe from undercover reporters posing as NGO representatives, to raise questions in the House.

Sting Operations

Parliament sacks all 11 tainted MPs
New Delhi, December 23:
Upholding the recommendation of the Ethics Committee, all the 11 'tainted' MPs have been expelled from the Parliament. 
Whereas BJP MP from Orrisa, Chhattrapal Singh Lodha, has been expelled from the Rajya Sabha, other 10 have been expelled from the Lok Sabha. The ten Lok Sabha members were expelled after BJP and some of its allies walked out. 
The 10 members are Annasahed M K Patil, Y G Mahajan, Suresh Chandel, Pradeep Gandhi and Chandra Pratap Singh (all BJP), Narendra Kumar Kushwaha, Lal Chandra Kol and Rajaram Pal (all BSP), Manoj Kumar (RJD) and Ramsevak Singh (Cong), who were caught on camera accepting money for raising questions in the House The motion, moved by leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, was adopted by a voice vote after leader of the Opposition L K Advani led a walkout of his party and some allies, saying he could not associate himself with the expulsion, which was disproportionate to their offence. 
However, the BJP, which was totally opposed to the punishment, did not choose to press for a division. 
Lodha, was the only ‘tainted’ member in the Rajya Sabha. 
Rajya Sabha debated the report, which was chaired by Dr Karan Singh of the Congress party. 
Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley made strong pleas that Lodha should be given an opportunity to be heard on the matter and the case be referred to the Privileges Committee. 
Lodha was also caught while demanding money in another operation called Chakravyuh for granting undue favours to another NGO from the MP Local Area Development fund.

PM to consult UPA on Bansal recommendations
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will consult United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies on the recommendations of the high-level Bansal Committee set up to look into the recent cash-for-query scam that rocked all political parties, reported a private TV channel The inquiry committee has ruled that the continuance of the 10 Lok Sabha members was "untenable" and has recommended their expulsion from the House. The 10 accused members are Narendra Kumar Kushwaha (BSP), Annasaheb MK Patil (BJP), Manoj Kumar (RJD), YG Mahajan (BJP), Pradeep Gandhi (BJP), Suresh Chandel (BJP), Ramsevak Singh (Cong), Lal Chandra Kol (BSP), Rajaram Pal (BSP) and Chandra Pratap Singh (BJP).

Sting Operation, On-camera expose shows corruption
Star TV. 7 MPs caught on camera
NEW DELHI: LiveIndia.com
It's sting season. Elected representatives had barely recovered from ‘‘Operation Duryodhan’’, which exposed 11 MPs taking bribes in exchange for raising questions in Parliament, when a television channel on Monday unveiled "Operation Chakravyuh." 

The latest sting operation exposed MPs asking for cuts ranging from 5% to 45% for sanctioning funds under the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) — a kitty of Rs 8,000 crore — to be spent at the discretion of members of both Houses. 

The sting, which comes at a time when the political class is already reeling under the aftermath of the cash-for-query scam, also featured lacklustre names with the exception of the flamboyant and controversial former Goa chief minister and south Goa MP Churchill Alemao of Congress. BJP once again had a higher head count of MPs — from Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, Sidhi MP Chandra Pratap Singh, who has already been tainted in "Operation Duryodhan", and Ramswaroop Koli from Bayana in Rajasthan. 

Sakshi Maharaj, who owes his current Rajya Sabha term to Samajwadi Party, started out as a saffronite. SP, however, was represented by an authentic Samajwadi in Parliament’s new hall of infamy in Paras Nath Yadav from Jaunpur. Also included was Bahajun Samaj Party's Isham Singh from Saharanpur.
Outrage was instant. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who incidentally had launched a strong campaign to whittle down the discretion of MPs in implementation of MPLADS, said he was ashamed. SP, which escaped unscathed from the previous sting, promptly asked Paras Nath Yadav to resign. BJP’s Arun Shourie demanded action against his party colleagues embroiled in the latest embarrassment to Parliament.

MPLADS funds provide Rs 2 crore annually to each MP. The money is required to be spent in the development of the MP’s constituency. Though the funds are not directly handed to MPs, they have a decisive say in the identification and execution of the schemes, in many cases handed over to contractors of choice. While there are many examples where the fund went for genuine schemes-such as the development of the Biotechnology Centre at IIT Kanpur from Arun Shourie’s corpus, there have been growing allegations of MPs collecting hefty cuts from contractors.