The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to the Lok Sabha Speaker to appoint a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the House.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar said there was no reason for the court to entertain the petition as there was no law which prescribed the appointment of an LoP. It also said there was no statutory requirement for appointing an LoP. Hence, there was no reason for the court to direct the framing of a policy for such an appointment, the Bench remarked.
A similar plea was rejected by the High Court in 2014 without granting any relief.
The court disposed of the petition filed by advocates Manmohan Singh Narula and Susmita Kumari, claiming that the Speaker was not performing his statutory duty of appointing the LoP. The petition alleged that recognising a member of the House as the LoP was “not a political or arithmetical decision, but a statutory one”.
“The speaker has to merely ascertain whether the party claiming this post is the largest party in the Opposition,” the petition stated. It added that denying the second largest party in Parliament — the Congress — the leadership of the Opposition sets a wrong precedent and dilutes democracy.
“That in the new Lok Sabha, with 52 members, the Congress is the largest party in the Opposition, and is therefore the rightful claimant to this post under the law,” it said.