NO SALARY, PERKS FOR SHARAD TILL HC JUDGMENT: SC

NEW DELHI: Former Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav will not receive any salary, perks or allowances entitled to a lawmaker until his plea against his disqualification from the Rajya Sabha is settled by the Delhi high court, the Supreme Court ordered on Thursday.

A bench of justices AK Goel and Ashok Bhushan modified a high court order that permitted Yadav, who fell out with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, to receive financial benefits until the case was decided. The top court, however, allowed Yadav to retain the official bungalow allotted to him as a Rajya Sabha member.

The order came on an appeal by JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ramchandra Prasad Singh questioning the high court’s interim order.

The high court had, while refusing to grant Yadav a stay on his disqualification as an MP, let him keep his official bungalow and continue to get the salary and perks accorded to MPs.

The HC order was given on Yadav’s plea challenging his disqualification on several grounds, including that he was not given any chance to present his case by the Rajya Sabha chairman before the final order against him and his colleague and then MP Ali Anwar was delivered on December 4, 2017. Both were disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Yadav was elected to the Upper House in 2016. His term expires in July 2022. Anwar’s membership to the RS has already ended.

Yadav and JD(U) colleague Ali Anwar were disqualified under the anti-defection law after they opposed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision last year to switch from the Bihar Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The charge against Yadav and Anwar was that they had attended a rally of opposition parties in Patna in violation of a JD(U) directive.