Rebel Cong MLA moves U'khand HC on disqualification plea

One of the nine disqualified Congress MLAs today filed an application before the Uttarakhand High Court seeking urgent hearing of his petition on the ground that he will "suffer irreparable loss and injury" if it is not heard immediately.
Rebel Congress MLA Umesh Sharma Kau, in his application moved before Justice U C Dhyani, has sought that his petition challenging his disqualification by the Speaker be taken up before May 6 and also be decided before the Supreme Court decides the President's Rule case.
He has sought relief on the ground that the issues involved in the matter before the apex court have a "direct bearing" on the issues in his petition.

"That the special leave petition (SLP) against the divisional bench order against Article 356 hearing is to start from May 3, 2016 and the matter in the SLP has a direct bearing with the issue involved in the present writ and as such it is necessary that the present writ be decided before the decision in the SLP pending in the apex court," the application said.
Another ground on which the relief has been sought is that the apex court will close (for holidays) from May 14 onwards and if any order is passed by the Uttarakhand High Court in the petition before it, "it will affect rights of either party to approach the apex court in time".

The application also said,"That in the interest of justice and equity it is expedient and necessary that the Court may graciously be pleased to hear the writ petition as early as possible, preferably before May 6, 2016. Otherwise, the petitioner will suffer irreparable loss and injury."

The High Court yesterday had yesterday listed for May 9 the pleas of all the nine dissident Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification by Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal under the anti-defection law.
The court had passed the order after hearing brief arguments made on behalf of the Congress Chief whip and complainant, Indira Hridayesh, and the nine dissident MLAs of the party.

Counsel for the Chief whip had told the court that the nine rebel MLAs had neither in their plea challenging their disqualification nor before the Speaker had said they were willing to support another Congress government under a different Chief Minister.
The lawyer had also contended that the rebel MLAs were not denied natural justice and that the Speaker's order was not passed in haste.