INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JANUARY 16th - JANUARY 31st
- 2008
3 BSP MPS DISQUALIFIED UNDER ANTI-DEFECTION LAW
In an order that could have far-reaching implications, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has disqualified three BSP members from Uttar Pradesh - Bhalchandra Yadav, Ramakant Yadav and Mohammad Shahid Akhlaque - for having defected to the Samajwadi Party, and declared their seats in the House vacant.
While the Speaker's order, which is based on many evidences including media reports about the three MPs making public statements against the party on whose symbol they were elected, gives a boost to the BSP, it could also activate similar pending petitions against Congress MPs Natwar Singh and Kuldeep Bishnoy as well as SP's Beni Prasad Verma.
The Congress has been seeking disqualification of Rajya Sabha member Natwar Singh, who, besides openly attacking the party that he represents, had also shared public platform of the SP many times. LS member Bishnoy is also on the Congress target after he joined hands with his father Bhajan Lal in floating a rebel outfit. Mr. Verma had campaigned against the SP in the last UP assembly polls and shared platform with the Congress. The Congress sources said that the party has already furnished evidences against both Mr. Singh and Mr. Bishnoy.
Mr. Chatterjee's order, dated January 27, is the third major disqualification by the Speaker after the anti-defection law came into effect in 1985. The first instance was the disqualification of eight Janata Dal MPs in 1991 by the then Speaker Rabi Ray, and later four MPs of the Ajit Singh group were disqualified by the then Speaker Shivraj Patil, which was challenged in the Delhi High Court.
Petitions against the three BSP MPs were filed by the party under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (antidefection law) on the ground that the three MPs had "voluntarily" given up their party memberships and joined the SP in November and December, 2006.
The Speaker first referred the petitions to the Privileges Committee. After the privileges committee gave its report, Mr Chatterjee heard the MPs, and the petitioners for four days from December 10 last year. In three separate orders, the Speaker quoted extensively from the judgements of the Supreme Court in a number of cases and the reports submitted by the Privileges Committee in these matters.
He upheld the contention of the BSP group leader, who had produced reports of nearly a dozen newspapers and also a video clipping in one case, to prove that certain speeches and utterances were made by the MPs in favour of the SP after their suspension from the BSP, which amounted to voluntarily giving up their BSP memberships.
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