SC extends stay on summon notices to WB chief secy, DGP

MP, 16 July 2024, Kolkata: The Supreme Court on Monday is learnt to have extended till July 19 the stay on notices issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat summoning the West Bengal chief secretary, DGP and others in a matter related to alleged breach of privilege of the House by them. 

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra adjourned the hearing on the plea of the bureaucrats to July 19 after it was informed by a lawyer appearing for the Lok Sabha Secretariat that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was unavailable as he was out of the country. “We will list it on Friday. And, in the time, the ad-interim relief (of stay on notices) will continue,” the CJI said. 

It was learnt that on April 15, the top court had granted two weeks to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and others to file their replies to the plea moved by top bureaucrats of West Bengal against their summoning by the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha. They were summoned by the Committee of Privileges of the Lok Sabha over a complaint of “misconduct” filed against them by BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar when he was trying to visit the violence-hit Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas district in Bengal. 

Meanwhile, it was learnt that senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the five bureaucrats and officials of the Bengal government, said that no breach of privileges can be alleged for the acts which were committed outside the House. 

On February 19, the top court had for the first time stayed the notices issued by the privileges committee to the West Bengal chief secretary, director general of police (DGP) and others. 

Majumdar was hospitalised after BJP workers clashed with police personnel over not being allowed to visit Sandeshkhali, where women were agitating over alleged atrocities committed against them by now-suspended TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides. 

Chief secretary Bhagwati Prasad Gopalika, the then DGP Rajeev Kumar and others, including the district magistrate and superintendent of police of North 24-Parganas, were summoned to appear before the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha on February 19. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/sc-extends-stay-on-summon-notices-to-wb-chief-secy-dgp-571962