The Supreme Court on Friday refused to pass any directive to the government on the MPs’ attendance in Parliament and asked the petitioner to approach the Speaker.

A bench of CJI SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai, Surya Kant was acting on the plea filed by Anil Dutt Sharma raising concern over non-attendance of MPs in the Parliament.

The bench gave the liberty to the petitioner to withdraw the plea and approach the Speaker.

During the tenure of the 16th Lok Sabha, PM Modi has expressed displeasure over the lack of presence of party members in both houses of Parliament. Modi had also showed strict attitude and asked BJP MPs to ensure their presence.

It may also be noted that Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu had also pulled up MPs of both the Houses for not attending the parliamentary standing committees’ meetings and exhorted the leaders of all the political parties to make sure “quantitative and qualitative functioning” of these panels.

Naidu had said: “I expect the number of members of this House with full attendance in the meetings of the committees to rise.”

—India Legal Bureau