Sreedharan NGO seeks SC guidelines: 'Time to stop MPs’ misuse of House’

NEW DELHI: Metro Man E Sreedharan is in town and he is not happy. One of the key members of an NGO Foundation for Restoration of National Values that has filed a PIL over repeated disruptions in Parliament, Sreedharan says it's high time that parliamentarians were held accountable.

"We should not allow an institution like Parliament to be misused as a tool for political vendetta," said Sreedharan.

The NGO is seeking SC's intervention to ensure that the legislative process is not disrupted by lawmakers and has asked it to lay down guidelines. Sreedharan said there's a provision in the Constitution which allows for such guidelines, and that if the judiciary doesn't intervene, crores of public money will be further wasted.

Over the past decades, crores have been wasted already, said Sreedharan, citing figures that were part of the PIL.

"Each minute of running Parliament during sessions on an average costs Rs 2.5 lakh. Every hour, that goes up to Rs 1.5 crore. Every minute not spent on the business of legislation or governance is a waste of public money," he said.

Between 1991 and 2014, Parliament lost 2,162 hours and 51 minutes due to disruptions by MPs. The 15th session of Lok Sabha saw 40% of the session being wasted. This monsoon session, from July 21 to August 13, was totally washed out.

Sreedharan said the 15th Lok Sabha session was one of the worst in the last 50 years. "Lok Sabha worked for 61% and Rajya Sabha for 66% of their scheduled time," he said.

It's a point that the PIL also makes. It states, "The members assemble in Parliament or in assemblies only to transact their business, and in such a dispensation, on any ground whatsoever, no member has a right to disrupt or stall the session under any pretext whatsoever." It cites the example of the UK and the US, where stalling of Parliamentary business by obstruction is not acceptable. In fact, in the US, it's treated as a criminal offence and contempt of Congress, says the petition.

The NGO has on its advisory board a long list of prominent citizens like Ratan Tata, M N Venkatachaliah, N Vittal and Vibha Parthasarthi.