Declare me independent legislator, Binny tells court

Expelled Aam Aadmi Party legislator Vinod Kumar Binny Monday moved the Delhi High Court, seeking that it declare him an Independent member of the legislature.

The counsel appearing for Binny mentioned the matter before Acting Chief Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sidharth Mridul who refused to hear the matter on urgent basis and posted it for Tuesday when Justice Manmohan will hear it.

Binny, who was elected from the Laxmi Nagar assembly constituency as an AAP candidate, filed a plea against the assembly speaker and the party.

Filing the plea, Binny said that he joined AAP in 2013 and on various instances raised his grievances with the (then) Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal on issues relating to willful inaction towards introduction of promised policies in the manifesto by the party.

"The petitioner (Binny) through a press conference expressed and raised his concern over the issue, following which he was expelled from the party and his membership of the party was also terminated by the disciplinary action committee through a letter dated Jan 26, thereby changing the status of the petitioner to that of an Independent member of legislative assembly (MLA)," the plea said.

The petition further added that Binny sent a letter to the Delhi assembly speaker Feb 3 seeking clarification on the status of his assembly membership and his right to vote.

The speaker's reply Feb 11 was, Binny claimed "devoid of any merits, grossly illegal, unjustified and violation of democratic rights of an MLA". The plea said that subsequently he AAP issued two "illegal whips" Feb 13 and Feb 14, making it mandatory for him to attend the assembly and compelling him to caste his vote in the favour of party

Moving the high court, Binny sought setting aside of the speaker's letter, saying it posed an imminent threat to his continuance of him as a legislator. He also challenged issuance of two whips issued by AAP.

Binny sought to know that he was expelled by the party but since had not voluntarily resigned from the membership of the party, would he still belong to the same party and will have to follow the whips issued by the leader of his erstwhile party?

He said the provisions of the constitution of India and the Members of Delhi Legislative Assemblt (Disqualified on ground of defection) Rules, 1996 are silent on the expulsion of a member of the party being grounds for disqualification, why should a whip or direction of the political party be binding on its erstwhile member.