BHUBANESWAR: Speaker of the Odisha Assembly Surama Padhy on Monday rejected the disqualification petitions filed against 11 MLAs, eight from the BJD and three from Congress, for cross-voting in the March 16 Rajya Sabha election.
The Speaker, in separate orders for each MLA, held that the petitions lacked proper verification and supporting material. She cited Rule 6, particularly sub-rules (6) and (7) of the Members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules for their rejection.
The Opposition MLAs were accused of cross-voting in favour of BJP-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray, leading to the defeat of the joint Opposition nominee Datteswar Hota. They were suspended immediately after the election results were declared.
The BJD and Congress had moved the Speaker for disqualification of their membership from the Assembly under Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and violation of the party whip. The BJD MLAs include Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Naba Kishore Mallick (Jayadev), Souvic Biswal (Choudwar-Cuttack), Subasini Jena (Basta), Ramakanta Bhoi (Tirtol) and Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki) for cross-voting and violating party whip. Two other MLAs Arvind Mohapatra (Patkura) and Sanatan Mahakud (Champua), who also allegedly cross-voted in the RS polls, had been suspended earlier for anti-party activities.
Congress had sought disqualification of three of its MLAs Sofia Firdous (Barabati-Cuttack), Ramesh Chandra Jena (Sanakhemundi), and Dasarathi Gamango (Mohana) for allegedly voting against the party line.
A notification issued by the Assembly secretariat in this regard said, “The petitions are cryptic, vague, unsubstantiated and do not fulfil the statutory requirements.
Therefore, the petitions with gross infirmity or defects have been presented in pure ignorance of the statutory requirements and do not deserve any consideration.”
The Speaker said the evidence against the MLAs did not establish voluntary resignation or defection under paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. She observed that the petitions were not verified in the manner prescribed under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
While rejecting the petitions, the Speaker said there were procedural lapses, incomplete documentation, lack of required signatures in the enclosed documents, missing verification affidavits affirming the contents of the petitions and insufficient evidence in them.
Responding to the decision, Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallick and former minister Arun Sahoo said the Speaker should have examined the anti-party activities of the eight BJD MLAs instead of finding technical errors in the petitions. They maintained that the MLAs had given up the membership of the BJD voluntarily by violating party whip and voting for a candidate against the party’s decision. Congress leader Tara Prasad Bahinipati said the party will approach the Orissa High Court against the decision of the Speaker.