Court has not revoked Speaker's disqualification order: NCP

KOHIMA: The interim order by Kohima bench of Gauhati High Court had neither revoked the disqualification of the three defecting MLAs by Nagaland Assembly Speaker Chotisuh Sazo nor allowed them to join BJP, Nagaland NCP has claimed.

NCP state unit general secretary (Admn) Miathou Krose said the single bench judge Justice L S Jamir had directed on September 12 that the interim order was being passed without going into the merits of the case and the court had neither revoked the speaker's disqualification order nor allowed the MLAs to join BJP.

Jamir had heard the counsel of the speaker, NCP and the petitioner MLAs on September 12 and passed the interim order suspending Sazo's disqualification order, he said.

Media reports published on the interim stay order passed by the court, however, seemed to imply that the disqualification of three MLAs by the speaker on August 25 had been quashed, he told reporters here yesterday.

Speaker Chotisuh Sazo had disqualified the former NCP MLAs Imtilemba Sangtam, T. M Lotha and Mmhonlumo Kikon for switching sides to BJP on June 16 saying they had fulfilled all the laid down provisions under the Tenth Schedule of the Anti-Defection Law of the Constitution.

The NCP central office, Krose said, had suspended the three MLAs immediately after their defection on June 16 and the three could continue till the next hearing on October 28 or till such time that a final verdict was pronounced by a competent court.

The three could not, however, be considered as BJP MLAs but will remain as MLAs who have been suspended by their original party NCP, he said.

Meanwhile, the Nagaland unit of BJP has welcomed the interim stay by Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court on the disqualification of three MLAs.

In a press release, Nagaland BJP president M Chuba Ao said the interim order has 'virtually sanctified' the decision of the three MLAs, who joined the BJP for the 'progress of Nagaland'.

Welcoming the 're-entry' of the three MLAs into BJP fold, Chuba hoped this would be 'the beginning of the forging ahead of Nagaland politics and its development with the mainstream politics'.