LS privilege panel to hear Adhir on Aug 30, likely to revoke suspension

The Privileges Committee of Lok Sabha on Friday decided to ask Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to appear before it at its next meeting to hear his side on his suspension from the House for "misconduct".

The committee, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party member Sunil Kumar Singh, also appeared to favour recommending to Speaker Om Birla to revoke Chowdhury's suspension after formally hearing his side at its meeting on August 30, Parliament sources said.

Chowdhury was named by Speaker Om Birla for "unruly conduct" on August 11, the last day of the Monsoon session and was suspended from the membership of Lok Sabha pending a report from the Privileges Committee.

At the meeting on Friday, several members were of the view that Chowdhury has been punished for his conduct by Lok Sabha and there was no further need to examine his behaviour by a parliamentary panel.

"A person cannot be punished twice for the same offence," a committee member said, adding that even BJP members took a "soft view" of the issue and were in favour of revocation of Chowdhury's suspension.

Besides Singh, BJP members Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Raju Bista, Ganesh Singh, Janardan Sigriwal, Dilip Ghosh, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member T R Baalu, Congress member K Suresh and Trinamool member Kalyan Banerjee attended the meeting on Friday.

"As a process of natural justice, the committee has decided to hear Chowdhury's version at its next meeting on August 30," a committee member said.