SC no to stay on Amarinder's expulsion from Punjab Assembly

The Supreme Court today declined to grant a stay against the expulsion of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh from the state Assembly for his alleged involvement in the Amritsar Land Improvement Trust scam. A Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran, P Sathasivam, J M Panchal and R M Lodha, however fixed April 28 for hearing of the petition filed by Capt Singh. It also directed the parties to file return arguments at least a week prior to the date of hearing. Earlier, senior counsel K Parasaran, appearing for Capt Singh, contended before the court that the Assembly cannot take over the functions of the executive and the criminal investigation is the job of the police. The special committee appointed by the state Assembly cannot direct the police to conduct criminal investigations against the sitting members while conducting breach of privilege proceedings, Mr Parasaran said. Capt Singh is facing allegations of tampering with the resolution relating to illegal allotment of 32 acres of land to the Amritsar Improvement Trust. He also pressed for stay of the expulsion order and to allow his client to participate in the proceedings of the Assembly, since the Budget session is starting on February 27. Later, however, the counsel contended that they were not pressing for an interim relief when the Chief Justice had made it clear that ''we are not inclined to pass any intrim order." A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice B N Agarwal had rejected the prayer of Capt Singh for stay against the disqualification order passed by the state Assembly speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon in October last year. Senior counsel Ashok Desai appearing for the Punjab government as well as for state Assembly opposed the prayer for interim relief and contended that the application filed by the petitioner is only for early hearing to which he has no objection.

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