Kalpnath Rai's custody extended till March 19

Former federal minister Kalpnath Rai's judicial custody has been extended by a Delhi court till March 19.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, who was produced before the court by the Gonda jail authorities, was also sent to prison till March 19.

Rai and Saran Singh were arrested under TADA earlier this month for allegedly harbouring members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.

The court also rejected Rai's plea for attending the Budget session of Parliament.

Additional Sessions Judge S N Dhingra said Rai 'has got no special right to be treated otherwise than the ordinary accused.'

'If any other accused person cannot be given this right of attending to his business or work while in custody, Mr Kalpnath Rai also cannot be given permission to attend the Parliament session,' the judge ruled.

The judge said 'I consider that a politician has no special right to attend to his political business while in judicial custody. I do not think that the court should exercise discretion in favour of Mr Kalpnath Rai. If a politician is allowed to attend his special business, why should not other accused persons who are undertrials be allowed to attend their respective businesses while in custody.'

Judge Dhingra observed this, keeping in mind a state of affairs, where politics is not treated by the politicians as 'a sacrosanct function of leading the nation to higher attitudes of character and values but is treated like a business which requires no installation of factories, no toiling of day and nights and earnings fabulous amounts without being answerable to any law enforcing agency.

'While the court is independent of executive, it is not independent of the nation or the Constitution. It is accountable to the nation and works under the Constitution. No doubt, the members of a legislature have to perform an important national duty of bringing forward to the nation pros and cons of every bills laid down before the court.

'But the court cannot close the eyes to the sanctity attached by the MPs themselves to the legislative business in Parliament,' the judge observed.

He said 'in the past, most of the time of nation's most prestigious institutions -- the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha -- has been wasted at the huge cost of national exchequer by causing walk outs, creating fish market scenes and halla gulla and going to the extent of using muscle power inside the house.'