Sacked commonwealth games (CWG) organising committee chief and Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi’s attempts to get bail on the ground that he had to attend the ongoing monsoon session of parliament could not reap results on Monday.

The Delhi high court reserved its order in the matter even as the CBI strongly opposed his plea saying “he was making all attempts to get bail indirectly as the trial court has rejected it already.” The investigating agency through its counsel additional solicitor general A S Chandihok tore into Kalmadi’s contentions by asking, “As per the medical report of Kalmadi, he is suffering from various ailments, including loss of memory and neurological infractions. If this is the condition of an MP, what will he remember from his constituency and present before parliament?"

Kalmadi’s lawyer, senior advocate Ashok Desai backed his plea to be allowed to attend parliament by submitting the MP's past two year’s attendance record in the lok sabha which Desai said was between 80 to 90 per cent. He further substantiated his point by claiming that Kalmadi raised 154 questions in the 14th lok sabha and 42 questions in the present lok sabha before he was jailed on charges of corruption in the CWG.

Desai argued that "under article 105 of the constitution special rights and privileges have been given to parliamentarians and the fundamental rights under article 19 are overridden by the provision made for the MPs" which the centre and the CBI countered and said that both parliamentarian and an ordinary citizen when under arrest shall be treated equally.

The high court had on July 29 sought Kalmadi's attendance record in parliament for the last five years while issuing a notice to the CBI and asking it to file its reply on his plea.