The Supreme Court Monday transferred to itself all writ petitions filed in the Delhi high court by 10 members of Parliament challenging their expulsion from Parliament in the cash-for-query scam.
A Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran, however, refused to pass an interim order vis-a-vis stay of elections for the vacancies likely to be caused by the "cessation" of their membership.
Posting the matter for hearing in the week commencing February 27, the court said all prayers for interim reliefs, including accommodation and other faclities availed by the members, shall be considered then.
The order came after Attorney General Milon K Banerjee submitted that the court should transfer the petitions first and then the prayer for interim relief can be considered since the EC was yet to issue notification for the polls.
After deciding the issue of interim relief, the 10 cases transferred on Monday from the Delhi High Court shall be clubbed together with the one filed by expelled Bahujan Samaj Party parliamentarian Rajaram Pal, which has already been referred to a Constitution bench.
The Constitution bench will examine if Parliament had power to expel its members, especially in the absence of any express provision in the Constitution on expulsion of parliamentarians.
On behalf of expelled parliamentarians, senior counsel P N Lekhi said according to Article 101(4) of the Constitution, the parliamentarians will cease to be members of Parliament if they do not sign the register at least once in 60 days.
He sought a direction to the EC to not issue the notification for filling the vacancies likely to be caused by their cessation. The court asked EC counsel Muralidharan to seek instructions from the commission on the interim relief sought by the petitioners before the next date.
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