Court to decide if Kalmadi can attend parliament

Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar today said that former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief presently in jail had written to her seeking permission to attend the monsoon session of parliament. She added the decision on this would be taken by the court trying the tainted Congress MP from Pune.

"The issue you are raising, I will refer to it. There is a legal process going on. It is for the competent court to decide (whether Kalmadi should be allowed to attend parliament proceedings)," Kumar said when told that MPs facing trial on criminal charges had attended the house in the past.

She however, avoided replying to a question as to whether courts had the power to stop an elected MP from attending the house.

Kalmadi was sacked as Congress parliamentary party secretary and also as the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief before his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over his alleged involvement in large scale irregularities in the preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

If allowed, Kalmadi would not be the first MP to attend parliament while in custody.

In the past, MPs Mohammad Shahabuddin and Pappu Yadav convicted in separate cases for murder but were shifted from a Bihar jail to Tihar Jail to allow them to attend the Lok Sabha after securing permission from the courts.