The Delhi High Court Friday allowed BJP MLA Vijender Gupta to attend the Delhi Legislative Assembly from March 27 for the remainder of the ongoing budget session, while hearing his plea challenging the March 21 motion which had suspended him for one year from attending the sittings

A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh perused through the summary of proceedings of the Legislative Assembly and remarked that there was “disturbance caused during the sitting of the House both by the petitioner (Gupta), as also by ruling party members”.

“There is no gain saying that the Members of the Legislative Assembly or any other elected house have to maintain the dignity of the house in order to play a positive role owing to the mandate of the people,” Justice Singh said.

The court perused the Supreme Court’s decision in another case from Maharashtra where the suspension of a member was also for a year and the rules and said that as per “Rule 277, the suspension is graded” and in view of this decision, suspension beyond the remainder of the session would be contrary to law.

The HC observed that under Rule 277 (1), the speaker can direct “any MLA to be suspended for the remainder of the day’s sitting if the conduct is disorderly. Rule 277(3)(b) clearly requires that, on the first occasion, the suspension can only be for three sittings. On the second occasion the suspension can be for seven sittings and thereafter for the remainder of the session unless otherwise directed by the House”.

“The budget session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly is currently ongoing and the petitioner has already remained suspended for four days (March 21-24)…In view of the above discussion, the suspension period, being of one year, deserves to be set aside. It is accordingly directed that the petitioner would be permitted to attend the DLA from Monday i.e., 27th March, 2023 till the remainder of the current session. The writ petition is allowed in the above terms,” the court said.