New Delhi: The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has expressed concern over the manner in which Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023 “on the basis of a contentious report adopted without consensus and without her being given the right to express herself in a case related to her”. It noted that that the decision to expel her “was not founded in law.”While Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023, she won the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and returned to parliament. Her expulsion came after allegations that she took cash to ask questions in parliament. The ethics committee of the Lok Sabha tabled its report recommending her expulsion while Speaker Om Birla did not allow Moitra to defend herself in the lower house.The IPU in its decision adopted by the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians at its 176th session (Geneva, 3 to 19 February 2025) said that it is “concerned by the allegations brought forward by the complainant, including the fact that the vote on Moitra’s expulsion took place on the basis of a contentious report adopted without consensus and without her being given the right to express herself in a case related to her, as well as by allegations that she had been submitted to discriminatory and prejudicial treatment by Sonkar [BJP MP Vijay Sonkar], the chairperson of the ethics committee.”The IPU said that it was “particularly concerned by reports that Moitra was sanctioned in the absence of any breach of the law or applicable parliamentary rules; recalls the universal and inviolable nature of the legal principle of nulla poena sine lege, whereby no one may be held guilty of any offence on account of any act or omission that did not constitute an offence at the time when it was committed; and cannot but conclude, in light of information available to it, that the decision to expel Moitra from parliament was not founded in law.”The Wire has reported earlier that the committee, headed by Sonkar, has been criticised because of the manner in which its meetings were conducted. One such meeting ended in a walkout not just by Moitra but also by five members of the opposition parties. “She was asked which hotel in Dubai she had stayed during her visits and with whom, etc. Opposition members found those questions posed to a woman member of parliament in an official platform very offensive and walked out of it,” an opposition MP had told The Wire. The Wire had also reported that after giving members of parliament only two hours to read the report of the ethics committee, after it was tabled, a 30-minute discussion was scheduled but Moitra’s expulsion was announced within just a few minutes of debate starting and not even the entirety of the small slot allotted was used.The IPU has observed that expelling Moitra and stripping her of her seat in parliament was “an extremely serious punishment”.It said that “even ifMoitra’s expulsion had been in conformity with applicable rules and legal principles, such a sanction would be wholly disproportionate, as it not only deprived Moitra of her right to exercise her parliamentary mandate, but also deprived her electorate of representation in parliament.”The IPU in its decision said that it is concerned by the allegation that Moitra was expelled in retaliation for seeking answers on serious allegations of corruption. Moitra had alleged after her expulsion that the committee was biased against her for her audacity to question the alleged nexus between the Union government and the Adani Group. The IPU said that “a disproportionate sanction in such a context is likely to send a chilling effect to the opposition,” and that the IPU had adopted in 1997 the Universal Declaration on Democracy that establishes that “institutions and processes of democracy must accommodate the participation of all people” to “safeguard diversity, pluralism and the right to be different”.The IPU said that while it will continue to examine this case, it also requested the Lok Sabha secretary general to convey this decision to the speaker of the Lok Sabha. It also said that as it was informed of a process of revising parliamentary rules is ongoing, it has called on the parliament “to make use of this opportunity to revise its procedures to ensure that the situation that gave rise to Moitra’s expulsion is not repeated and that the rights of all members of parliament, both of the majority and the opposition, are protected equally in law and in practice”.
