UP Speaker commences hearing on defection of 13 BSP MLAs

LUCKNOW, June 23 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker Mata PrasadPandey today started hearing the case on defection of 13 MLAs fromBSP to the ruling Samajwadi Party even as Allahabad High Court is tostart hearing on a similar case from July 6 next.

Pandey commenced the hearing after a written application was moved by two SP MLA Rajendra Singh Rana and Virendra Singh Bundela, ministers in Mulayam Singh Yadav government, submitted on June 15.

The next date of hearing in the case has been fixed for July 1 and a counter reply by the BSP would be filed by June 30, the speaker pronounced after he rejected the BSP plea to give six weeks time for a rejoinder.

BSP legislature party leader Swami Prasad Maurya along with most of the 13 concerned MLAs were present during the hearing.

The 13 MLAs are Rajendra Singh Rana, Virendra Singh Bundela, Jaiveer Singh, Yogesh Pratap Singh, Shailendra Yadav, Jai Prakash Yadav, Brijendra Pratap Singh, Rajendra Singh Chauhan, Rajpal Tyagi, Surendra Vikram Singh, Kazim Ali Khan, Dinesh Singh and Qutub-ud-din Ansari.

The case is already being heard in Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court in which 40 SP MLAs, who had defected on September 6, 2003, were sent notices on the petition of BSP.

The 13 MLAs were among the 40 against whom the HC was hearing a BSP petition.

Claiming that the assembly speaker had all the right to hear and decide upon any defection case under the Tenth schedule of the constitution, Pandey denied that the commencement of the case would interfere with the HC case.

"The HC was taking up the case of 40 MLAs while we are hearing concerns of only 13 MLAs." Meanwhile, BSP counsel P N Gupta claimed it was a clear violation of the written undertaking given by the state assembly on November 14, 2003 assuring that it would not commence any hearing on the defection case till the HC gave its ruling.

"The commencement of hearing in the defection case is contempt on the part of the assembly speaker, when the HC had already laid that it would start day-to-day hearing from July 6," he added.

State revenue minister Ambika Choudhury, who was also present, claimed it was within the speaker's juridication to hear the case even if it was pending before the HC.

Petitioner Rajendra Singh Rana, also minister of state for transport, said he along with Bundela had to file the application to prevent rumour that the assembly membership of 40 people who had joined the SP would be cancelled by the HC very soon.

Of the 13 MLAs, whose case have been started by the speaker, four were originally from Congress, defecting to BSP on January 28, 2003.

On January 5, 2004, the Lucknow bench had served notices on the 40 rebel BSP MLAs on the petition challenging the recognition granted to a separate outfit formed by them and then being permitted to join the Samajwadi Party.

The rebel MLAs led by Rana had formed a 'Loktantrik Bahujan Dal' on September 6, 2003, which was recognised by the then assembly speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi who also permitted them to join the SP.

In the petition filed by BSP MLA Maurya, he had said on August 27, 2003, that 13 BSP MLAs left the party in two groups of eight and five members.

However, their decision to leave the party was challenged by him in the state assembly before the speaker on September 4, 2003.

The petition to this effect is pending till date in the House tribunal.

Maurya, in his petition before the Lucknow bench, also said after 24 other MLAs left the BSP on September 6, 2003, their number was still less than the required count to form a new party and the petition against the 13 was already pending, therefore they could not form a separate party.

The rebel 40 MLAs against whom the notices have been served are: Rajendra Singh Rana, Shailendra Yadav, Yogesh Pratap Singh, Rajendra Singh Chauhan, Jaiprakash Yadav, Virendra Singh, Bhuwal Nishad, Jaiveer Singh, Surendra Vikram Singh, Vinod Kumar Singh, Jang Bahadur, Ram Swaroop Singh, Virendra Singh Bundela, Raj Kishore Singh, Rajpal Tyagi, Uma Kiran Singh, Mehboob Ali, Nawab Qasim Ali, Qutubuddin Ansari, Dinesh Singh, Nathu Singh, Ataurrehman, Ansar Ahmed, Mohammed Bashir, Fasiha Murad Lari, Haji Yakub, Vimal Krishna Agarwal, Dharmendra Kumar Kashyap, Mohammad Shafiq, Uday Bhan Singh, Shyam Narain, Amarmani Tripathi, Brijendra Pratap Singh, Manish Chandra Sonkar, Ramji Shukla, Dharampal and Surendra Singh Patel and three others.