Patna High Court puts off petition of terminated MLAs for Monday

PATNA: The case of disqualification of four rebel JD(U) MLAs from Bihar Assembly was today taken up by the Patna High Court which adjourned the matter for Monday.

As the petition of the four legislators came up for hearing in the court of Justice Jyoti Sharan, Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore urged the court to adjourn the hearing.

The plea of Kishore representing Parliamentary Affairs minister Shrawan Kumar, who is also Chief Whip of ruling JD(U), was accepted and the hearing was put off for coming Monday.

Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary had on Saturday last ordered termination of membership of Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo (Barh), Neeraj Singh Babloo (Chhatapur), Ravindra Rai (Mahua) and Rahul Sharma (Ghosi).

The four had challenged the order in the HC. The Speaker had disqualified the four rebel JD(U) legislators as members of the Assembly on the charge of working against the party during the recent bypolls to two Rajya Sabha seats in the state.

The four have not been given status of ex-MLA in the Speaker's ruling thus depriving them of all benefits in that capacity.

The MLAs were charged with working as proposers and polling agents of rebel candidates Anil Sharma, a real estate baron and expelled JD(U) leader Sabir Ali in the bypolls.

After RJD and Congress had extended support, the two official JD(U) candidates - diplomat-turned-politician Pawan Verma and Gulam Rasool Balyawi - had won from the two seats defeating the rebels.