Being MP does not mean that you can violate law: SC tells Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari

NEW DELHI: Making it clear to Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari that he is not above law and cannot be allowed to take law in his hand just because of being a Member of Parliament, the Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled him up for allegedly defying its order on sealing drive and directed him to file affidavit within a week explaining his conduct.
Tiwari is facing contempt charge for interfering in SC-monitored sealing drive by breaking the lock of a house in northeast Delhi which was sealed by monitoring committee.The court had issued contempt notice to him and directed him to personally appear before it after committee filed a report seeking stringent action against BJP him for violating court’s order. It also placed CD containing videography of the incident.
As soon as the matter was called for hearing, senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Tiwari, started lashing out at monitoring committee for not taking action against all illegal and unauthorised construction in the city. He said that the committee was selectively taking action and the sealing drive is being done for getting publicity.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, however, asked the lawyer whether he had seen the video in which Tiwari had claimed that there were more than thousand unauthorised buildings in the city which were not being sealed. Singh replied that he had not seen the video and continued criticising the committee.
“Being an MP does not mean that he has license to do whatever he wants. We are requesting you to first see the CD. You do not have to get agitated just because he (Tiwari) is here,” the bench said.
The bench also asked the BJP leader, “ Mr Tiwari, in your CD, you say there are more than thousand places which should be sealed. Give us a list of these places. We will make you the sealing officer.” The BJP leader, however, preferred to remain silent and the firefighting to protect him from contempt proceedings was done by his lawyer.
The bench, thereafter, directed him to file affidavit giving explanation for his alleged unlawful conduct and why contempt proceedings be not initiated against him.
The monitoring committee, comprising former advisor to Election Commission K J Rao, Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) chairman Bhure Lal and Major General Som Jhingan, said in its report that members of political parties and others are intentionally and deliberately violating the court’s order not to interfere in the sealing drive against illegal and unauthorised construction in the city. It said that court should act tough against such person to ensure that court’s order is not violated.
“The monitoring committee requests this court to pass stringent directions including initiation of contempt proceedings against Manoj Tiwari, MP for seal tampering so that sealing operations may continue uninterrupted as per the direction of this court,” the report said.
The court had earlier said that it was unfortunate that an elected representative of people was resorting to such practice amounting to violation of law and contempt of court. The apex court has time and again asked the political leaders to refrain from interfering in the sealing drive and warned them not to politicise the issue. Sending a stern message that any attempt to disrupt sealing drive by the court-appointed committee would not be tolerated, the court had earlier issued contempt notice to Shahdara MLA OP Sharma and municipal councillor Gunjan Gupta for preventing the panel for taking action against unauthorised constructions in Delhi but the two were let off after they tendered unconditional apology.