State election commissioner Nand Lal was sent to jail for two days by the Legislative Assembly on charges of breach of privilege.
MUMBAI: State election commissioner Nand Lal was sent to jail for two days by the Legislative Assembly on charges of breach of privilege. Lal was arrested from his office in the New Administrative Building opposite Mantralaya and taken to Arthur Road Jail, where he was lodged in the Anda Cell.
The privileges committee had accused Lal of disrespecting the legislature by not responding to the notices issued by the committee. According to the committee, Lal also refused to clarify or personally appear before the committee during hearings. The opposition disapproved of the ruling Democratic Front (DF) government’s action, terming it as “lowering the dignity of the Assembly”.
Lal himself said, “This is political vendetta. I have been fighting against the illegal manner in which executives tried to hold civic body elections. I had also refused to be pressurised in connection with the delimitation of the Latur Lok Sabha constituency. My fight is not over yet.”
On March 7, 2006, Congress MLA Janardhan Chandurkar had moved a privilege motion against Lal in the assembly contending that he had issued orders to hold elections for various posts of civic bodies, which was out of his jurisdiction. Lal maintained it was within his jurisdiction, but the state argued that he was overstepping his brief. Chandurkar moved a privilege motion against the election commissioner on March 27, 2006.
Lal refused to submit personally signed copy of explanation as to why action should not be initiated against him for breach of privilege. Not just this, but Lal later also refused to appear before the committee to explain his stand over the issue.
Taking serious note of his consistent refusals to send signed clarifications and personal appearance before the committee, the privileges committee headed by Chandrakant Chajjed recommended seven-day simple imprisonment for state election commissioner. However, intervening in the matter, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh requested the House to amend his punishment and reduce it to two days of judicial custody.
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