The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception to Delhi BJP chief and MP Manoj Tiwari for allegedly casting aspersions towards its committee, which is supervising the sealing of illegal structures in the Capital.
Being an MP does not give you the liberty to take the law in your hands, the SC told Mr. Tiwari, who was present in the court in pursuance to the contempt notice issued against him for allegedly breaking the seal of a premises which was being run in violation of the Delhi Master Plan.
A Bench headed by Justice Madan B. Lokur asked the BJP leader to explain his claims made to a news channel related to the sealing issue. “Mr. Tiwari, in your CD, you say there are 1,000 places which deserve to be sealed. Give us a list of these places. We will make you the sealing officer,” said the Bench, also comprising Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta.
‘File an affidavt’
It also directed the BJP leader to file an affidavit within a week explaining why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The MP from northeast Delhi constituency had said that the apex court-appointed monitoring committee was not sealing thousands of illegal structures.
An FIR was lodged against him by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation for allegedly breaking the seal of a premises in north-east Delhi’s Gokalpuri.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the BJP leader, said no seal was broken by Mr. Tiwari.
Mr. Singh alleged that the “monitoring committee was seeking publicity using your Lordships’ forum and the property in question had nothing to do with the sealing order”. The lawyer said he needed time to file a detailed reply in the matter.
The Bench has directed Mr. Tiwari to appear before it again on October 3, when it will hear the matter.
While taking serious note of a report filed by the monitoring committee in this regard, the top court had earlier observed that it was “unfortunate” that an elected representative should try to defy the orders of the top court.