Patna High Court permits jailed MPs to take part in trust vote

Patna, July 16 : The Patna High Court on Wednesday allowed two jailed Members of Parliament -- Mohammad Shahabuddin and Surajbhan Singh -- to take part in next week's trust vote in Parliament, providing some relief to the Manmohan Singh Government, which reportedly has been scrambling for numbers.

Justices Shivkriti Singh and Abhijit Sinha of a division bench of the high court, the Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Siwan (Shahabuddin) and Lok Janshakti Party MP from Balia Surajbhan Singh permission to go to New Delhi for the July 22 confidence vote.

Both are serving life terms in separate criminal cases.

On Tuesday, an Allahbad court granted Atiq Ahmed, who is facing trial in a number of criminal cases in Uttar Pradesh, permission to take part in the voting.

Ahmed, a Member of Parliament representing the Phoolpur constituency, is being wooed by both the Congress and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He was a member of the Samajwadi Party, which has now forged an outside support political arrangement with the UPA.

Besides Shahabuddin, Suraj Bhan Singh, and Ateeq Ahmed, the two other jailed MPs who could support the government are Pappu Yadav (RJD) and Afzal Ansari of the Samajwadi Party.

Another MP in jail is Umakant Yadav of the BSP, who if permitted to vote, may do so against the ruling UPA.

The court allowed Shahabuddin, serving life term in connection with the kidnapping and suspected murder of a CPI-ML activist Chotelal Gupta in 1999, to leave for New Delhi on July 20 and remain there for two days till July 22. It directed Shahabuddin to return to Bihar by July 23 and bear the travel expenses of the accompanying policemen also.

ANI