CUTTACK: Justice RK Pattanaik of Orissa High Court on Tuesday recused himself from hearing petitions filed by BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik challenging the Odisha Assembly Speaker’s rejection of pleas seeking disqualification of eight party MLAs over alleged cross-voting in the March Rajya Sabha election.
Justice Pattanaik did not cite any reason for recusing himself from the matters. In his brief order, he said, “I recuse myself from hearing of the matters, hence, Registry is requested to list the same before any other bench with the orders of the Chief Justice any time next week.” The order came after submissions on the petitions concerning five of the eight MLAs - Arvind Mohapatra, Souvic Biswal, Sanatan Mahakud, Chakramani Kanhar and Subasini Jena. The five MLAs are among those against whom the BJD had sought action under the anti-defection law.
Advocate general Pitambar Acharya, appearing for the state, raised objections to the maintainability of the petitions. Senior advocate Milan Kanungo, appearing for Mallik, made submissions opposing the Speaker’s approach and argued that the BJD should have been given an opportunity to rectify procedural defects rather than having its petitions rejected outright. Rejecting the disqualification pleas on technical grounds without examining the allegations would defeat the purpose of the anti-defection law, he said.
The Speaker, in a June 19 notification, had described the BJD petitions as cryptic, vague, unsubstantiated, holding that they did not meet the statutory requirements for consideration on merits. The petitions were rejected under Rule 7(2) of the Members of Odisha Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1987.
Justice Pattanaik had earlier directed the matters to be listed on September 29 for further hearing and orders and directed the Speaker, secretary of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and the MLAs concerned to file their counter affidavits.
