Cash-for-query case: Cong MP Adhir Ranjan writes to LS Speaker on ethics panel proceedings against Mahua Moitra

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Moitra, will be tabled in the lower house on 4 December. The committee, at a meeting on 9 November had adopted its report recommending Moitra's expulsion from the Lok Sabha over the "cash-for-query" allegation. In a four-page letter to the speaker, Chowdhury said there is no clear-cut demarcation in the roles envisaged for the Privileges Committee and the Ethics Committee, more so in matters of exercising penal powers.

“There is no clear-cut demarcation in the roles envisaged for the two Committees, more so, in the matter of exercising penal powers. Also, as on date, there is no clear definition of "unethical conduct", and a "Code of Conduct remains to be formulated though envisaged under Rule 316 B of the Rules of Procedure. These issues, inclusive of the procedures being followed by the Committee, which have a significant bearing and influence on the polity, may require deeper attention, and the processes streamlined under your guidance and directions," he wrote.

Chowdhury, who is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the views expressed by him are in his personal capacity. "If the media reports on the recommendations of the Ethics Committee on choosing to recommend expelling Ms. Mohua Moitra from Parliament are right, it would, perhaps be the first such recommendation of the Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha.

Expulsion from Parliament, you will agree Sir, is an extremely serious punishment and has very wide ramifications," he said. According to the agenda papers circulated by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Ethics Committee Chairperson Vinod Kumar Sonkar will lay on the table of the House the panel's first report. The committee, at a meeting on November 9, adopted its report recommending Moitra's expulsion from