GUWAHATI: Manipur governor La Ganesan has dismissed a plea of opposition Congress for disqualifying 12 BJP MLAs from the Assembly for holding offices of profit.
After perusing the detailed objection affidavit filed by the MLAs, various settled laws of the Supreme Court, Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1972 and the Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Act, 1975, the governor on Wednesday declared that the 12 MLAs had not incurred disqualification on the ground of office of profit.
“I, La Ganesan, Governor of Manipur, do hereby declare that the 12 (twelve) MLAs of the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly have not incurred disqualification on the ground of office of profit under the provision of Article 19) of the Constitution of India; and as a result, the said complaint dated 21.10.2020 filed by Shri DD Thaisii is dismissed accordingly,” the governor said.
Earlier, the office of the governor had received the opinion of the Election Commission which held that the MLAs had not incurred disqualification under Article 191(1)a) of the Constitution in view of the Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) Act, 1972.
Last month, the Supreme Court observed that the Manipur governor could not delay in taking a decision on the EC’s opinion on the case given on January 13 this year.
In 2018, Congress legislator Thaisii had lodged a complaint alleging office of profit. Manipur is expected to go to elections in February next year.