On Monday, seven BJP MLAs took their case to the Delhi High Court, contesting their indefinite suspension from the Delhi Assembly due to their interruption of the lieutenant governor's address. Justice Subramonium Prasad scheduled a hearing for February 20 to consider whether any interim relief should be granted to the suspended legislators: Mohan Singh Bisht, Ajay Mahawar, OP Sharma, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai, Jitender Mahajan, and Vijender Gupta.

Senior advocate Jayant Mehta, representing the petitioners, argued that the indefinite suspension of the MLAs until the privileges committee concludes its proceedings was a breach of the relevant rules. He highlighted that this suspension prevented the MLAs from participating in the ongoing Budget session. Mehta urged the court to enable their involvement in the session.

“Tomorrow morning at 10:30. I will be only looking at interim,” Justice Prasad said. The petitions came up for hearing before Justice Prasad after they were mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora in the morning.

The BJP MLAs reportedly disrupted Lt Governor (LG) VK Saxena's address on February 15, where he was discussing the achievements of the AAP government, while also criticizing the Arvind Kejriwal administration on various fronts.

Senior advocate Mehta pointed out that on February 16, the Speaker suspended 7 out of 8 Congress MLAs, despite them already having been "marshalled out" the previous day. Mehta argued that being marshalled out should have been considered punishment for their alleged misconduct.

Mahawar, Gupta, and Bajpai have asserted that the suspension of the entire opposition from the House has effectively silenced any voice for accountability. They argue that their suspension violates both the Constitution and the Rules of Business of the House.

“Surprisingly and shockingly, on 16.02.2024, an unconstitutional motion was moved by Sh. Dilip Pandey for suspending the Petitioners for an indefinite period till disposal of the adjudications in the cases pending before the committee of privilege. This was maliciously engineered to disable the opposition members to participate in the discussions on crucial businesses that were to be discussed and to also exclude them, albeit unconstitutionally, to participate in the budget session of the House,” the plea stated.

“The Order of the Hon 'ble Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi is unconstitutional, unjust, unfair and, in any event, selective and grossly disproportionate. It violates the fundamental and constitutional rights of the Petitioners,” the petition filed through advocate Satya Ranjan Swain added.

The petitions assert that the conduct of the suspended legislators did not constitute "unruly behavior," as they merely highlighted different aspects related to the speech delivered by the LG. However, the Speaker intentionally and deliberately suspended only the opposition MLAs. Furthermore, the petitions argue that their suspension violates Article 19(1)(a) (the right to freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution of India, as well as the rights and privileges of the MLAs. They also argue that the principle of "proportionality" and "rationality" has been disregarded in their suspension.

“The Order of the Hon'ble Speaker dated 16.02.2024 is a clear case of violation of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Legislative Assembly of National Capital Territory of Delhi. It is respectfully submitted that at one hand the Hon'ble Speaker has referred the case to Privilege committee and in the same breath, has suspended 7 MLAs of the opposition party. “It is noteworthy to mention that the MLAs were punished/suspended before the Privilege committee gave its findings/report. This action will tantamount to punishment without adjudication,” the plea said.