LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit on Thursday asked the principal secretary to look into a plea seeking disqualification of jailed BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari as a lawmaker on grounds of being absent from the House proceedings without permission since its constitution in 2017.
A Varanasi resident Sudhir Singh had on Wednesday made the plea to unseat Ansari under the provisions of the Article 190 (4) of the Constitution.
"Principal Secretary Pradip Dubey has been asked to look into the entire matter relating to the petition moved against Mukhtar Ansari," Dikshit told the media here.
The MLAs seek permission either in writing or verbally from the Speaker or presiding officer in the event of remaining absent from the House.
This has been a tradition since long, Dikshit said.
He said that he did not remember getting any application from Ansari for not attending the House proceedings.
Gangster-turned-politician Ansari, who is an MLA from Mau Sadar, is presently lodged in a Punjab jail.
Claiming to be the president of Mafia Virodhi Manch, Singh, in his petition to the Assembly speaker, cited Article 190 (4) of the Constitution which provides that "if a member of any House of a state legislature fails to attend the House proceedings for 60 days without its permission, the House may declare his seat vacant".
The petitioner said Ansari has neither attended nor participated in the sittings of the House, held from time to time, since the current Assembly started its sittings in 2017.
He has not even sought any permission to be absent from the House for such a long period, the petitioner said.