Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker seeks dismissal of disqualified MLAs’ plea

The Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker on Saturday sought dismissal in the high court of the petition of the nine Congress MLAs against their disqualification, saying they violated the law against defection and deserved to be punished for it.

Appearing for Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, counsel Kapil Sibal said the question to be put to the nine dissident MLAs is “how they went to the BJP” and whether “they (nine) have violated the 10th schedule of the Constitution”.

“If they have violated the 10th schedule, how can they seek stay of disqualification,” the senior counsel asked.

“How can they seek stay of disqualification when according to the division bench (of Uttarakhand high court) they have committed the Constitutional sin of defection ” he said.

“When they joined the BJP and signed the memorandum (for division of votes), they knew it was unethical and unconstitutional,” Mr Sibal argued before Justice U.C. Dhyani the Speaker’s case during hearing on the petition filed by the nine MLAs against their disqualification.

He contended that by joining the BJP, the nine MLAs have “voluntarily given up their party membership” as they voted against the party’s policy (on the Appropriation Bill) and also voted for the fall of the government. Mr Sibal sought the dismissal their plea on the ground that they stated “falsehoods” before the court by contending that they were not given the documents relied upon by the Speaker.

The dismissal was also pleaded on the grounds that the petitioners did not disclose crucial material, which was in their possession, before the court and that they “jumped the hierarchy of courts”.

He said that on these three grounds the High Court need not entertain the petitions filed under Article 226 challenging their disqualification.

“On these three grounds the petitions should be dismissed at the threshold without going into the merits,” he said adding that the “political motivation” of the nine for moving the high court was to get a stay on disqualification “so that they can vote on floor test of March 28”.