The court was hearing Rashid’s petition, where he claimed that after his election to the Lok Sabha last year, he had been left in legal uncertainty. His bail application was stuck because the NIA court handling his case was not a designated MP/MLA court.
New Delhi, Feb 6: The Delhi High Court asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to clarify its stance on allowing jailed Member of Parliament (MP) Engineer Rashid to attend the ongoing Parliament session while in custody. Rashid is currently facing trial in a terror funding case.
During the hearing, Justice Vikas Mahajan questioned why Rashid, an elected MP, could not attend the session under judicial custody.
“He can, in the meantime, attend the session in judicial custody. He is an elected MP. What is the difficulty in sending him in custody?” the judge asked.
The court has given the NIA time until Friday to respond.
The NIA counsel argued that the issue was complicated, mainly due to security concerns.
“The matter was not that simple as there was an issue of security as well.”
The court was hearing Rashid’s petition, where he claimed that after his election to the Lok Sabha last year, he had been left in legal uncertainty. His bail application was stuck because the NIA court handling his case was not a designated MP/MLA court.
During the hearing, the counsel representing the Delhi High Court administration informed the court that an application seeking clarification had been filed in the Supreme Court.
“An application has been filed in the Supreme Court for a clarification, and it will be mentioned on Friday for listing.”
According to the Supreme Court’s website, the matter is expected to be heard on either February 10 or 11.
Earlier, the NIA opposed Rashid’s plea for interim bail to attend the Parliament session, asserting that he had no such privilege.
“He had no such ‘right’ as a parliamentarian.”
In his petition, Rashid has requested the high court to either direct the NIA court to quickly decide his bail plea or take up the matter itself.
On December 24, 2023, Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh, who was handling Rashid’s case, asked the district judge to transfer it to a designated MP/MLA court. However, his request was not accepted, leaving Rashid in a legal limbo.
The judge dismissed Rashid’s request for an order on his pending bail plea in the NIA case. When the case was sent back to him, he ruled that he could only decide miscellaneous applications and not the bail plea itself.
“He could only decide the miscellaneous application and not the bail plea.”
