High court wants names of MPs not paying phone, power bills

The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked various government agencies to prepare a list of MPs whose pending telephone and electricity bills are running into millions of rupees.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan asked Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to prepare lists of the defaulting MPs and the names of their political parties.

The court had earlier suggested the agencies recover the money from the political parties the defaulting MPs are affiliated with if they themselves do not clear their dues on time.

Some parties, including Jharkand Mukti Morcha and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), have filed affidavits in the court that they had cleared the pending bills of their MPs.

After taking on record these affidavits, the court directed the government agencies to file fresh affidavits on the status of dues.

Counsel for the government submitted that the agencies had no difficulty in recovering money from sitting MPs but it was a problem in case of those who are no longer MPs and have dues running into millions of rupees.

Counsel for the ITDC earlier said that a total of Rs.10 million was pending against 244 MPs and it had initiated proceedings against 37 of them.

The NDMC’s lawyer informed the court that the unpaid bills of MPs added up to Rs.50 million, but he did not mention their number.

The court was hearing a public interest petition seeking directions to the government agencies to take action against politicians who are not paying house rent, telephone bills or electricity bills.

Last updated on Jul 22^nd, 2009 at 20:16 pm IST--IANS