Uttarakhand High Court to hear tomorrow MLAs' plea challenging Speaker's action

NAINITAL: The Uttarakhand High Court will hear tomorrow a petition filed by rebel Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification under the anti-defection law by the Speaker.

Justice U C Dhyani of the high court had yesterday posted for hearing on Saturday an urgent application moved by rebel MLAs Umesh Sharma Cow, Subodh Uniyal and Shailarani Rawat.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today said ex-Chief Minister Harish Rawat should be allowed to seek a vote of confidence on the floor of the Assembly on May 10.

However, the apex court said the nine disqualified Congress MLAs will not vote in the House till their disqualification remains. It maintained that its observation will not come in the way or prejudice the case of the rebel MLAs which is before the high court.

If the rebel Congress MLAs remain disqualified, the effective strength of the House will be reduced from 70 to 61 in which any party mustering the support of 31 MLAs will have the majority.

Both Congress and BJP have 27 MLAs of their own.

The nine rebel Congress MLAs, who were disqualified by Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal on March 27, have filed two separate petitions in the high court challenging the Speaker's action against them.

While senior Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal and Amit Sibal have represented the Speaker before the single bench of the high court, C A Sundaram, L Nageshwar Rao, Dinesh Dwivedi and Rajeshwar Singh are arguing on behalf of the rebel MLAs.

The rebel Congress MLAs had sided with BJP to demand a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill in the state Assembly.