Indian politician Mahua Moitra has been expelled from the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament, due to “unethical conduct” and the commission of “serious misdemeanours.” Moitra is a member of the Trinamool Congress, the opposition party lead by Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamta Banerjee.
As detailed in the Ethics Committee Report, Moitra stands accused of accepting bribes and luxury gifts from businessman Darshan Hiranandani in exchange for raising questions in Parliament. Additionally, she is said to have given her private parliamentary website login details to this businessman, letting him conveniently raise issues there. The committee cited national security concerns and “contempt of the House” over the sharing of her user ID and password with unauthorized parties when recommending her expulsion.
The Ethics Committee Report makes reference to sections 66 and 43 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. These sections stipulate that dishonestly revealing user ID and password details is punishable by up to three years in prison, a hefty fine, or both. The report emphasizes that Moitra’s disclosure of login details put national security at risk, as this could give unauthorized parties access to sensitive documents that aren’t part of the public domain, such as draft bills distributed to Parliament members in advance.
Lastly, the establishment of the Ethics Committee in the Parliament was a result of a resolution passed at the Presiding Officers Conference in 1996 in New Delhi. Its responsibility is to oversee the ethical conduct of Parliament members and investigate cases regarding their ethical and other forms of misconduct.