The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the order passed by the Speaker of the Manipur Assembly disqualifying three MLAs from the term of the 11th Legislative Assembly of Manipur for allegedly defecting to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Bench of Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat, and Bela M Trivedi requested the Speaker, Y Khemchand Singh to decide the disqualification pleas afresh and consider disposing of the matter as early as possible in accordance with the law.
The order of the apex court came on a plea filed by MLAs Kshetrimayum Biren Singh, Yengkhom Surchandra Singh, and Sanasam Bira Singh, elected to the Assembly in 2017 on Congress party tickets, challenging the June 2021 order of the Manipur High Court which had upheld the June 2020 decision of the Speaker to disqualify them.
The High Court on June 18, 2020, passed its order filed against the decision of the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly.
It was alleged that the three MLAs gave up their membership of the Congress party and supported the ruling BJP for the purpose of strengthening the coalition government in the State.
Disqualification petitions were filed against them before the Speaker and he approved their disqualification.
( With inputs from ANI )
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