Mahua Moitra cash-for-query row: What’s Lok Sabha Ethics Committee hearing the case?

The cash-for-query controversy involving Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra continues to unravel. The complaint by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey will be taken up by the Lok Sabha ethics committee on Thursday.

Earlier in the month, Dubey wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla accusing Moitra of accepting bribes to ask questions in Parliament, which targeted the Adani Group. The allegations are based on information provided by lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai. The accusations were later confirmed by Darshan Hiranandani, a real estate developer, who said in a “sworn affidavit” that the Trinamool leader had given him her Parliament login and password so that he could post questions on her behalf.

Now on Thursday noon, the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee holds its first meeting on the matter. Dubey and Dehadrai will appear before it.

We take a look at what is the committee and what can we expect next in the case.

What is the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee?

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee oversees the moral and ethical conduct of parliamentarians. It is a permanent member of the Lower House and has a term of one year. It last met on 27 July 2021.

The idea of an ethics committee for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was first proposed in 1996 at a presiding officers’ conference held in Delhi. The panel for the Upper House was constituted by the then Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman on 4 March 1997. It was inaugurated two months later in May to oversee the moral and ethical conduct of MPs and look into cases of misconduct referred to it, according to a report in The Indian Express.

However, the Lok Sabha panel came into force much later. After a group of Committee of Privileges of the Lok Sabha visited the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia to study practices linked to the conduct of legislators in 1997, it drafted a report on the formation of an ethics committee. But the Lok Sabha was dissolved before the report could be tabled.

The report was tabled in the 12th Lok Sabha but the Lower House was dissolved again before the Committee of Privileges could take a view on it. The panel recommended the formation of an ethics committee during the 13th Lok Sabha, an ad-hoc Ethics Committee was constituted in 2000 and it became a permanent member of the House in 2015, reports The Indian Express.

How does the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee function?

Any person or legislator can make a complaint relating to the unethical conduct of a Lok Sabha MP. If the complainant is not a member of the House, it shall be forwarded to the committee by an MP, according to the Lok Sabha website.

The complaint must be addressed to the Speaker, who may refer it to the committee “for examination, investigation and report”. The complainant “must declare the identity and submit supporting evidence, documentary or otherwise to substantiate the allegations”.

A complaint by a non-member filed through a Lok Sabha MP should have an affidavit. Every complainant should ensure that their complaint is “not false, frivolous or vexatious and is made in good faith”.

The Ethics Committee does not entertain complaints on sub-judice matters or based on media reports. It enquires before examining a complaint and after evaluating it makes recommendations.

The report of the committee is presented to the Speaker who asks the House if it should be taken up for consideration. There is reportedly a provision to discuss the report for 30 minutes.

The ethics committee has taken up several complaints since its constitution but most of them have been light offences. The more serious matters are taken up by the Privileges Committee, which safeguards the “freedom, authority, and dignity of Parliament”.

Who is on the current Ethics Committee?

The Lok Sabha Ethics Committee is headed by BJP’s Vinod Kumar Sonkar. The other members are BJP’s Vishnu Datt Sharma, Sumedhanand Saraswati, Aparajita Sarangi, Dr Rajdeep Roy, Sunita Duggal, and Subhash Bhamre; Congress’s V Vaithilingam, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Balashowry Vallabbhaneni, and Preneet Kaur; Shiv Sena’s Hemant Godse; Janata Dal (United )’s Giridhari Yadav; Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s PR Natarajan and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Danish Ali.

What happens next in the Mahua Moitra case?

In an article in The Indian Express, former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary wrote, “The Committee will call the persons who are involved, the stakeholders — the person who made the complaint, the people who made statements, filed affidavits — and take their evidence. After that, the Committee will certainly call the Member against whom the complaint has been made. She has the right to cross-examine the complainant. She can also seek the permission of the Speaker to appear through an advocate, who can cross-examine the other side.”

What has Moitra said?

The Trinamool MP had last Friday that she was ready to answer the questions of the panel when the Committee called her.

In a post on social media platform X, Mahua Moitra said, “I welcome answering questions to the CBI & Ethics Committee (which has an absolute majority of BJP members) if and when they call me. I have neither time nor interest to feed an Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls…”

With inputs from agencies