Odisha Speaker gets HC relief as contempt petition dropped

After the Odisha Assembly Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat disposed the state NCP chief's disqualification petition against four party MLAs, the Orissa High court today dropped the contempt proceedings initiated against the Speaker.
The NCP chief Utkal Keshari Parida's petition seeking disqualification of four NCP MLAs, who switched alliance to the ruling BJD, was pending before the Speaker since March this year.
Contempt of court case was filed against the Speaker by the NCP president alleging that Amat was defying the orders of the High Court and the Supreme Court. Both the courts had earlier directed the Speaker to act upon the petition of the NCP president immediately in which he had sought disqualification of the MLAs who had won the elections on NCP ticket but in June last year joined the ruling BJD.

The Speaker late last night, disposed Parida's petition by quashing it on several counts, including on the ground that the NCP chief's petition was not filed in accordance to the provisions of Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and the documents annexed to the petition were not signed by the petitioner.
Today the Speaker in his affidavit urged the High Court to drop the contempt proceedings against him as he has already taken a decision with regard to the petition of the State NCP chief.
The Division Bench of Justice Indrajit Mohanti and Justice B N Mohaptra dropped the contempt proceedings against the Speaker.

"The Honourable Court did not feel it necessary to continue with the contempt proceedings against the Speaker and accordingly dropped it," said the Speaker's Counsel Pitambar Acharya.
Meanwhile all the four MLAs, who had deserted NCP and joined BJD, have welcomed the Speaker's decision in quashing the NCP president's petition and said much ado was made about a defective petition that lacked merit.