NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha today allowed rebel JD(U) lawmakers Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar one more week to respond to the party's plea for their disqualification from the House, after they sought a month to reply to the House's communication.
Rajya Sabha Secretary-General Desh Deepak Verma has communicated them that they had been granted one more week to reply to the House communication, official sources said.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat had asked Yadav and Anwar to respond within a week, which ended today. The lawmakers had sought more time to prepare their replies, saying they were at the moment occupied with political programmes.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the Rajya Sabha secretary general earlier today, Anwar said any decision should not be taken in a hurry and they should be given "natural justice".
"What is the hurry? We should be given an opportunity to explain ourselves," he said, and demanded that the matter be referred to the ethics committee of the House.
Anwar pointed out that the committee was yet to be constituted.
He said they had sought one month to reply to the Rajya Sabha's communication to them.
JD(U) General-Secretary Sanjay Jha accused the rebel members of resorting to delaying tactics to avoid their disqualification as MPs for alleged anti-party activities.
The party's Rajya Sabha members on August 12 had removed Yadav, who opposed the party's decision to ally with the BJP in Bihar, as their leader in the House and replaced him with R C P Singh.
It had also suspended its Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar Ansari from the parliamentary party for attending a meeting of opposition parties convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Differences between Bihar Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar and Yadav surfaced after the former snapped ties with the Congress and the RJD, and allied with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar in July.