An advocate has filed a PIL with the Supreme Court asking that President Draupadi Murmu inaugurate the new Parliament building instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as planned in the middle of the controversy surrounding its opening.
According to the Public Interest Litigation by C. R. Jaya Sukin, the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s statement on May 19 about the inauguration of the new building by PM Modi on May 28 and the invitations sent out by the Lok Sabha Secretary General for this were made without appropriate consideration.
The petitioner referred to Article 79 of the Constitution, which states that there shall be a Parliament for the Union, consisting of the President and two Houses to be known, respectively, as the Council of States and the House of the People.
He argued that the President should not be barred from the inauguration of the new Parliament building because the President has the power to summon and prorogue Parliament or dissolve the Lok Sabha.
The plea comes at a time when 19 opposition parties decided to abstain from the inauguration, saying that the President should be the one to do it rather than Prime Minister Modi.
