The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday (December 9, 2024) issued notices to State Assembly Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar and Congress MLA Nirmala Sapre, who joined the BJP earlier this year, in connection with the delay in decision on the latter’s legislative membership.
The Indore Bench of the High Court was hearing a petition moved by Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar seeking disqualification of Ms. Sapre from the State Assembly.
The single-judge bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar issued notices to Mr. Tomar and Ms. Sapre and asked them to submit their responses before the next hearing on December 19.
Ms. Sapre, a first-time MLA from Bina Assembly constituency, was one of the three Congress legislators in the State to switch allegiances to BJP amid the Lok Sabha elections. After joining the ruling party in Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s presence on May 5, however, she is yet to resign from her legislative membership.
The Congress had in July requested Mr. Tomar to disqualify Ms. Sapre under the anti-defection law but moved the High Court in November over the delay in decision making.
In his petition, Mr. Singhar has alleged bias on the Speaker’s part and has requested the court to decide on Ms. Sapre’s membership, his counsel advocate Vibhor Khandelwal told reporters.
“We had moved a disqualification petition before the Speaker against Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre but the Speaker has not decided on it for five months. That’s why we moved the High Court and have demanded that since the Speaker is biased, the court should decide on the matter and suspend Nirmala Sapre’s membership,” Mr. Khandelwal said.
“She joined the BJP in the Chief Minister’s presence and there are tweets from BJP’s official handle as well as Nirmala Sapre’s interviews with the media. We had used all this as evidence in the disqualification petition before the Speaker and now have based our court case on this,” he said.
Since her move to the ruling party, Ms. Sapre has been seen attending various BJP events and meetings. However, she has maintained that she has not yet taken the BJP membership officially.
Apart from her, Kamlesh Shah, MLA from Chhindwara district’s Amarwara, and Ramniwas Rawat, then MLA from Sheopur’s Vijaypur, had also joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls.
While Mr. Shah won the by-election in July, Mr. Rawat, who was made a Cabinet Minister in the State government, lost the bypoll from his seat held in November.
Published – December 10, 2024 05:21 am IST
