Lok Sabha MP from Baramulla Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid.
| Photo Credit: Imran Nissar
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) asked Delhi Police to explain how it computed travel expenses imposed on Jammu and Kashmir MP Engineer Rashid to attend Parliament’s Monsoon Session.
A Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Anoop Jairam Bhambhani asked the state to explain the break up of the calculation and posted the matter for August 18.
The High Court was hearing a plea of the Baramulla MP seeking modification of an order passed by a coordinate bench on March 25.
By the order he was asked to deposit around ₹4 lakh with the jail authorities to attend Parliament in custody.
The court deferred the matter as the Delhi Police counsel did not appear.
It previously came on record that the MP so far has been saddled with ₹17 lakh travel expenses to attend Parliament.
Mr. Rashid’s counsel argued for a legislator, it was not just a privilege but to perform their public function.
“I (MP) am saying I have a duty to attend the Parliament. Make it convenient and don’t make it an obstruction for me,” he said.
The court, however, asked the counsel, “What are the duties of a parliamentarian? First, to attend Parliament, second to visit his constituency. So, tomorrow you will say allow me to visit my constituency. Third, that you have a right to meet your constituents and political brethren. Fourth, that you have a right to canvass for elections. Where will it stop?”
The Baramulla MP is facing trial in a terror funding case with allegations that he funded separatists and terror groups in Jammu and Kashmir and has been lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2019. The NIA arrested him in the 2017 terror-funding case.
Published – August 13, 2025 07:04 am IST
