A case for appraising House's penal powers

House ethics committee’s recommendation to expel Mahua Moitra from Parliament turns the focus on the mandates of various panels

-  PDT Achary

The ethics committee of the Lok Sabha has recommended that Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament (MP) from West Bengal, be expelled from Parliament for what it describes as a serious misdemeanour on her part and contempt of the House.

The main charge against her is that she shared her log-in details and password given to her to raise questions in Parliament with a Dubai-based businessman, who used these to send questions to the Lok Sabha in her name. The crux of the charge is that Moitra allowed the businessman to misuse her access for potential promotion of his business interests. The ethics committee met for two days, found her guilty and called for her expulsion.

The ethics committee of the Lok Sabha, as the name suggests, is mandated to deal with the unethical conduct of MPs and recommend punishment.

As of today, no definition of "unethical conduct" exists. The committee looks into the nature of the conduct and decides whether it is unethical or not.

The cases examined by the ethics committee so far - they are not many-show that it has dealt with minor deviations from general norms of conduct. Punishments have varied depending on the seriousness of such deviations: Admonition, reprimand and suspension from the sittings of the House for a certain period are usually recommended. In the history of the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha, it has never recommended the expulsion of an MP from the House.

Expulsion from Parliament is a very serious punishment since it deprives the people of the constituency of the expelled MP the right and opportunity to represent themselves in the House.