The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the NIA's stand on a plea by jailed Jammu and Kashmir MP Rashid Enꦐgineer for interim bail in a terror-funding case to attend Parliament.
Ju🏅stice Vikas Mahajan, post🥀ing the hearing next week, said, "Let the needful be done before the next date of hearing."
Rashid said he w⛎ished to attend the upcoming budget session of Parliament, whicꦇh begins on January 31 and concludes on April 4.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, ꦰappearing for the NဣIA, said he would seek instructions on the issue.
In the alternative, Rashid's plea sought custody parole during🍸 th༺e budget session.
The plea forms part💫 of his pending petition over grant of ཧbail in the case by the NIA.
His main petition urges the high court to either direct the expeditious disposal of🍌 his pending bail plea by the trial court or decide the matter itself.
Rashid's lawyer had said the MP was left without any redressal as the court hearing the bail plea "suddenly" took the view that it could not hear his case and the MP/MLA court did not have the jurisdiction to hear cases probed by the National Investigat🎀ion Agency (NIA).
During the hearing, Luthra said the high court administration filed a plea before the Supreme Court for a clarification on the issue.
He objected the maintainability of the writ petition, saying Rashid ought to have filed an appeal instead, and he had no "right" in law to attend Parliament only because he was an MP now.
"We have to find a solution to this.🏅 MP/MLA court can't be a s🍬pecial judge (for NIA). There is a statute," the court said.
Justice Mahaj🀅an grantಞed more time to NIA to file a response to the main petition.
Senior advocate N Hariharan, who represented the MP, reiterated his concern with respect to his constituency g✱oing unrepre🃏sented during the budget session.
"I missed the last session. My area can't go unrepresenteꦿd. I received summons from the President in prison. All I am asking is this, since the court is not gett🌠ing convened, grant me interim bail," he said.
"I have pl🐼edged allegiance to the country. I am not a flight risk," he added.
Hariharan argued the intent of the Supreme Court's decisio🐼n on designation of special MP/MLA courts was to grant expeditious hearing to th🥂e legislators and not use it to their disadvantage.
On December 24 last year, additional sessions judge Chꦺander Jit Singh -- who requested the district judge to transfer the case to a court designated to try lawmakers as Rashid was an MP -- dismissed his plea asking for an order on the pending bail application in the NIA case.
With the matter sent back to him by the district judge, the trial judge said in his decision that he could only decide the miscellaneous application and not ꦬthe bail plea.
The NIA counsel had earlier told Justice Mahajan that the probe agency in Nov⛎ember wrote to the registrar general on the issue of designation of a trial court to hear the case ไbut he was not aware of the status of the request.
Rashid was elected from the Baramulla constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2019 aꦰfter the NIA arrested him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevenꩵtion) Act in the 2017 terror-funding case.
The ED filed a money laundering case against the𝓡 accused persons on the basis of the NIA's FIR, which accused them of "conspiring to wage war against the government" and fomenting trouble in꧃ the Kashmir valley.
Cases of the NIA and the ED also involve Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and 26/11 🅰Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahu🎀ddin and others.
