Plea against NCP MLAs: HC Directs Speaker to Dispose Petition Within 8 Weeks

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Thursday directed Assembly Speaker Pradip Amat to dispose a petition filed by State NCP President Utkal Keshai Parida, seeking disqualification of the four former party MLAs, namely Amar Prasad Satapathy, Ramachandra Hansda, Prashanta Nanda and Nabin Nanda, who had joined the ruling BJD in the state earlier this year and asked Amat to dispose the petition filed before him within eight weeks.

Earlier, Parida had petitioned Amat seeking disqualification of the four MLAs as they had voluntarily given up the membership of the party that had helped them to become legislators.

However, Amat did not paid any heed to the petition saying that Parida was not a member of the Assembly so he (Parida) cannot seek any relief from the Speaker under Article 191 of the Constitution.

A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice B K Mishra on Thursday overruled the objection filed by Amat and observed that any interested person can petition the Speaker seeking disqualification of any member of the House as per the provisions under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Source: 360 NS