UP assembly speaker to hear 5 MLAs disqualfication case on June 1

Lucknow, May 29 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker Mata Prasad Pandey today fixed June 1 as the next date of hearing into the case pertaining to disqualification of five MLAs, who had rejoined the BSP leaving the Loktrantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD) on March 1 last.

The speaker alsodirected the principal secretary (assembly) to provide relevant documents as demanded by the MLAs following a Allahabad High Court directive issued today.

According to the MLAs, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad HC has asked the speaker to provide relevant documents including party list to the five MLAs before hearing the case into their disqualification.

Earlier on May 20, the speaker had rejected the demand of the five MLAs to provide them with the current party position in the assembly and the party-wise electoral rolls used during the biennial Rajya Sabha polls held on March 28.

Under the 10th Schedule related to disqualification, Mr Pandey said, there was no need for such a list. The counsels of the five MLAs had demanded the list claiming it would decide whether the MLAs had left the party or not.

All the five MLAs -- Jaiveer Singh, Surendra Vikram Singh, Ramji Shukla, Ram Krishna and Dharampur -- had already submitted their preliminary objections on the petition of disqualification filed by Loktrantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD) chief whip Yogesh Pratap Singh for violating the party whip.

In the preliminary objections, the MLAs claimed there was no existance of LBD. They have also demanded party list during the RS polls and documents relating to the existance of the LBD and its chief whip.

On May 5, the Supreme Court had turned down the plea of the MLAs to prevent the speaker from hearing their case.

The five MLAs had rejoined the BSP on March 1 after the Allahabad HC by its majority judgement had quashed the split and merger of the 40 member LBD with the Samajwadi Party in September 2003.

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