JOIN USHC verdict on MLAs tomorrow, U'khand suspense mounts
Suspense mounted on Saturday over the fate of the 9 disqualified rebel Congress MLAs with the Uttarakhand High Court reserving its judgment for May 9.
The verdict will come a day ahead of the floor test in the state Assembly for sacked chief minister Harish Rawat.
“The hearing has been concluded. I will pronounce the judgment at 10.15 am on May 9,” said Justice U C Dhyani at the conclusion of nearly 3 hours of arguments on both sides.
While ordering the floor test, the Supreme Court had said that the disqualified MLAs cannot participate in the voting if they continue to remain disqualified at the time of voting.
The court had also said, “However, our observation in praesenti will not cause any kind of prejudice to the merits of the case of disqualified Members of Legislative Assembly, which is sub-judice before the High Court.”
At present, in the 70-member Assembly, BJP has 28 MLAs, Congress has 27, BSP has 2, while there are 3 independent MLAs and one belongs to Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P). Nine MLAs are Congress rebels and one is a BJP rebel.
Counsel C Ariyama Sundaram, appearing for the disqualified MLAs, argued that the Speaker’s action against them was “biased” and went against the tenets of natural justice. He contested the 3 grounds on which action against the MLAs was taken.
He asked what was wrong in the Congress MLAs writing a joint memo to the Governor with their BJP counterparts seeking a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill.