Perhaps in a first of its kind, the privileges committee of the Rajasthan Assembly issued an arrest warrant on Wednesday against a woman police inspector for breach of privilege of the House.
The warrant was issued to the director general of police to produce her before the house at 11 am on Thursday.
The unprecedented step was taken on a complaint by the members of the Assembly’s committee on welfare of women and child development.
On July 19, 2010, members of a the committee headed by BJP legislator Suryakanta Vyas went on a surprise inspection of the women’s police station at Gandhi Nagar in Jaipur.
Inspector Rachna Gupta, who was in charge of the police station then, reportedly did not cooperate with the MLAs and was accused of rude behaviour towards them.
The committee members then filed a complaint with senior police authorities, as well as with Speaker Deependra Singh Shekhawat.
The Speaker in turn, forwarded the complaint to the committee on privileges, headed by Congress legislator Surendra Singh Jadawat.
Summons issed
The committee issued three summons to Gupta which remained unanswered. Instead, she filed a writ petition in the Rajasthan High Court against Assmebly sumons. The High Court sent a notice to the Assembly on October 5.
At an all-party meeting — which took place after the monsoon session had been adjourned sine die on Oct 12 — it was decided that the House will not reply to the court’s notice.
‘Arrest cop’
Further, it was decided that the Assembly would direct the DGP to arrest Inspector
Rachna Gupta and produce her before the committee.
The Speaker said that the judiciary cannot question the Assembly’s privilege to summon somebody and hence, the HC notice would not be replied to.
The all-party meeting, which was held in the speaker’s chamber, was attended by deputy speaker Ramnarayan Meena, leader of opposition Vasundhara Raje, deputy leader of opposition Ghanshyam Tiwari, chief whips of major parties.
