NEW DELHI: Rebel JD(U) Leader Ali Anwar, who has been disqualified from Rajya Sabha, was today asked by Delhi High Court why he was seeking to retain government accommodation "so desperately".
The leader from Bihar, whose tenure as Rajya Sabha MP was to end in April 2018, has sought a stay on his disqualification from the Upper House and requested the court to direct the authorities not to evict him from his bungalow till the court decides the matter.
"You hand over your accommodation to the government. Why you want to hold it so desperately?," Justice Vibhu Bakhru orally asked the counsel for the leader.
The court did not pass any formal order on Anwar's plea and posted the matter for consideration on January 3, 2018.
In its passing remarks, the court said that "once your term is over, you hand over the bungalow to the authorities".
Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for Anwar, said that his client was not given any chance by the Rajya Sabha Chairman to be heard before disqualifying him and former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav on December 4.
The high court had refused to grant any interim stay on the disqualification of Yadav as a Rajya Sabha (RS) member on December 15 but allowed him to draw his salary, allowances and perks, and retain the bungalow.
Anwar, who had rebelled against the official JD(U) faction led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the latter joined hands with the BJP, has termed the RS chairman's order as "perverse, contrary to the rules of the natural justice and is also tainted with malafides".
The plea stated that the filing of an application before the Election Commission of India (ECI) by the Yadav-led faction for recognition as the real JD(U) cannot lead to the inference that he voluntarily gave up his membership of the party.
"The dispute before ECI was in respect of which faction constitutes the JD(U) and, therefore, any adjudication by the ECI on a petition filed by the supporters of the petitioner cannot be termed as anti-party activity by any stretch of imagination," the plea said.
Anwar was elected to the House in year 2012 and his term is scheduled to expire in April, next year.
Naidu, while disqualifying the two, had accepted the JD(U)'s contention that they had "voluntarily given up" their party membership by defying its directives and attending events of opposition parties.
The JD(U) had sought their disqualification on the grounds that they had attended a rally of opposition parties in Patna in violation of its directive.