Government hails Supreme Court dismissal of plea for LoP to Congress

 Government today hailed the Supreme Court dismissal of a plea which had sought that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) status in Lok Sabha be granted to Congress party.
"We welcome the decision of the Supreme Court. Congress should get the LoP status from people. If people's court has rejected them, not given the requisite 55, how can we help," Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Javadekar said.

Noting that Congress needed to have 11 more members to be eligible for getting the LoP, he said the BJP has 11 more members than simple majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
"We cannot lend 11 MPs...They must accept people's verdict with humility," Javadekar said reacting to the dismissal of a PIL on the issue.

Refusing to entertain the petition filed by an advocate, a bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha said "ruling of Speaker in the House is not amenable to judicial review". "Under Article 32 we are not sitting here to decide political issues," the bench said, adding, "ruling given by Speaker in the house is not amenable to judicial review". Petitioner M L Sharma submitted that the question of the Leader of the Opposition is to be read with the provision of the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977.

"Section 2 of the 1977 Act defines the LoP of each House as the leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength. Therefore a person who is the leader of the greatest numerical strength is to be declared as a Leader of the Opposition," he submitted.