SC to hear the petition of disqualified BSP MLAs on June 26

New Delhi, June 21 (UNI) The Supreme Court today decided to hear on June 26 the application filed by five Bajujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs who had challenged their disqualification by the Uttar Pradesh state assembly speaker on June 10, 2006.

A vacation bench, comprising Justice A R Lakshmanan and Justice Altamas Kabir directed the listing of the matter for hearing, after counsel for the petitioner R K Khanna mentioned the matter before the court, seeking urgent hearing in the case.

The five BSP MLAs were disqualified under the anti defection law for violating the whip of the Bahujan Lok Dal (BLD), the breakaway group of BSP, during polling for Rajya Sabha election, from the state.

The proceedings were initiated on the complaint filed by Yogesh Pratap Singh, leader of BLD group in the assembly who sought their disqualification, on the grounds that their strength was well below one third of the total strength of the group in the assembly.

The petitioner have sought interim stay against the order of the speaker, in order to preserve their political status in the assembly.

They have challenged the speaker's order on the grounds that since this court was seized of the matter, the speaker should not have entertained the complaint of the BLD leader.

The MLAs disqualified are Surender Vikram Singh, Ramji Shukla, Jaiveer Singh, Dharampal Singh and Ram krishna.

After the Allahabad order dated February 28, 2006, the five petitioner had resigned from the state cabinet to rejoin their parent party, BSP.

The 42 MLAs had defected from BSP in September 2003 to join the Samajwadi party of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, to enable him to form his government in the state, and all the 42 defectors were awarded with ministerial berths and chairmanship of various corporations in the state.

The High Court had held that the defection of 42 MLAs from BSP and their subsequent joining of Samajwadi Party was illegal.

The SC had permitted the breakaway group to function as an independent group under the name of BLD in order to preserve the political status of the 42 MLAs.

The present strength of the breakaway group in the assembly is 37.

UNI AKS/SC AD AT DS1330