MLC’s disqualification: Cong to challenge order dismissing plea
LUCKNOW: Dinesh Pratap Singh, a rebel Congress MLC from Rae Bareli, will continue to be the member of Vidhan Parishad as parishad chairman Ramesh Yadav has dismissed Congress MLC Deepak Singh’s petition that sought his disqualification under the anti-defection law.
However dissatisfied with the order, the petitioner said over phone, “I will challenge the Vidhan Parishad chairman’s defective order quashing my petition in the high court or even in the Supreme Court if so needed.”
“My petition had been pending before the chairman for last three years and I will request the high court for an early decision because justice delayed is justice denied,” he added.
Dinesh Singh threw down the gauntlet to his mentor and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi by contesting against her from Rae Bareli seat in 2019 Lok Sabha polls after he formally joined the BJP in presence of its then president and now union home minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath at a public meeting in Rae Bareli in April 2018 without quitting his position and the Congress MLC.
On May 9, 2018, Congress MLC Deepak Singh submitted a petition to Vidhan Parishad chairman Ramesh Yadav making a case for an outright disqualification of Dinesh Singh from the membership of the Upper House on the ground that he ‘voluntarily’ left the party and joined the BJP.
This, he pleaded in his petition, made the rebel MLC liable to action under the provisions of the anti-defection law.
According to the Vidhan Parishad chairman’s order passed on July 27, Dinesh Singh, the defendant, filed his objections to the allegation on June 24, 2020 claiming the Deepak Singh’s petition seeking his disqualification was not ‘maintainable’ under the rules.
He pleaded that the Congress party suspended him sine die on April 18, 2017— the fact, he claimed, the plaintiff had hidden in his petition.
“Since I was suspended from the Congress for an indefinite period, it is wrong to say that I relinquished the party voluntarily,”
› My petition had been pending before the chairman for last three years and I will request the high court for an early decision because justice delayed is justice denied
DEEPAK SINGH, Congress leader
he submitted in his reply.
He also maintained that the newspaper clippings that the petitioner had submitted in support of his claims could not be considered and accepted as any ‘proof’ under the rules.
He also contested the petitioner’s claim of being the Congress’ ‘chief whip’ in the Upper House.
A member of the either house, it may be pointed out, becomes liable to losing his membership under the anti-defection law if either they voluntarily give up the membership of their party or violate their party’s whip.
Rejecting Deepak Singh’s petition, Vidhan Parishad chairman, Ramesh Yadav said the petition was not ‘maintainable’.
“Considering the above cited facts, documents and rulings given by the Supreme Court, I am of the definitive view that the petition presented before me is not maintainable and deserved to be dismissed. The petition is accordingly dismissed,” the operative order said.