Gauhati HC quashes disqualification of 3 NCP legislators

A division bench of the Gauhati High Court Wednesday set aside the order of Nagaland assembly Speaker Chotisuh Sazo disqualifying three NCP legislators who merged with the BJP.

T.M. Lotha, Imtilemba Sangtam and Mmhonlumo Kikon were disqualified as members of the 60-member assembly by the speaker Aug 25.

Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar had also written to Sazo to immediately disqualify the three members on the ground that the NCP has not merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, the division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice (acting) K.S. Rao and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan termed Sazo's order disqualifying the three erstwhile NCP legislators as "illegal".

"The court has set aside the Nagaland assembly speaker's order and held the disqualification of the three erstwhile NCP legislators illegal in as much as per the mandate of paragraph 4 (2) of the 10th schedule of the Constitution," S.S. Dey, the legal counsel of the three BJP legislators, told IANS.

Dey said the court said that the the three erstwhile NCP legislators joining the BJP was a "valid merger of their original political party".

Legislator Kikon told IANS that the court's order has proven the "arbitrary decision of the speaker wrong".

After the high court order, the number of BJP MLAs in the 60-member assembly has gone up to four. The BJP is supporting the Naga People's Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government headed by T.R. Zeilang.