The Lokpal sought two months from the Delhi High Court to reconsider sanction for CBI prosecution against TMC MP Mahua Moitra over alleged cash-for-query. Moitra was expelled in December 2023 after an ethics panel found ID misuse claims arose.
NEW DELHI: The anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpal has approached the Delhi High Court to request an additional two months to make a new decision regarding sanctioning the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a charge sheet against Trinamool Congress (TMC) parliamentarian Mahua Moitra. She is accused of accepting money and favors in exchange for asking questions in Parliament.
Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023 following a recommendation from an ethics panel, which found that she allegedly provided her official ID to Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani to post questions on the Lok Sabha portal.
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She faces allegations of receiving lavish gifts and funding for overseas trips in return. Hiranandani has supported these claims, while Moitra, who was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024, has denied the allegations.
Lokpal requested more time, citing the winter holidays, just days after the High Court overturned its November 12 decision that granted sanction for the charge sheet.
The High Court noted that the procedure used for the sanction was a form of statutory ingenuity that did not align with the provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act of 2013. It directed Lokpal to reconsider the sanction in accordance with the Act and to reach a decision within one month.
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A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Renu Bhatnagar directed that the matter be presented before the original bench that issued the December 19 order. The bench noted that granting an extension would essentially modify the earlier directives.
The court stated.
“The application is filed for extension of time, which amounts to modification. Let the same be listed, after orders from the Chief Justice. List on 23rd January [Friday],”
The December 19 order was issued by Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.
The controversy gained prominence in the wake of Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha in December 2023, following allegations described as a “cash-for-query” arrangement.
These allegations coincided with proceedings initiated before the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee, which examined claims that Moitra had received monetary or other benefits in return for raising specific questions in Parliament. The committee’s inquiry culminated in her removal from the House, a decision she openly challenged, alleging arbitrariness and violation of procedural fairness.
While the parliamentary action centred on ethical impropriety, the complaint before the Lokpal raised a separate legal question whether the material on record disclosed a prima facie case of corruption justifying an investigation by the country’s highest anti-corruption authority.
The case has revived broader concerns about the interaction between internal parliamentary discipline and external oversight by statutory bodies. Although these mechanisms function in distinct legal domains, their simultaneous operation has prompted apprehensions about effective double jeopardy and the risk of politicisation in accountability processes.
In October 2023, Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, referencing a complaint from lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai against Moitra for allegedly accepting money and favors for posing questions in Parliament. That same month, he also approached Lokpal regarding the “cash-for-query” allegations.
Last March, Lokpal instructed the CBI to file a case against Moitra, stating that there was “sufficient prima facie evidence on record that deserved deeper scrutiny.” Lokpal directed the agency to investigate “all aspects of the allegations” against Moitra within six months, after which the CBI submitted its report to Lokpal.
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