Singh is listed as a Congress MLC on the Council website. (File)
The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court has issued notice to Principal Secretary, UP Legislative Council, to explain why a Congress application seeking disqualification of Dinesh Pratap Singh, Member Legislative Council, has remained undecided for two years after he switched sides to BJP from the grand old party.
Singh is listed as a Congress MLC on the Council website.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justices Dinesh Kumar Singh and Pankaj Kumar Jaiswal, while hearing a petition of Congress MLC Deepak Singh, issued notice to the Principal Secretary, UP Legislative Council, to file his affidavit.
Listing the matter for next hearing on June 19, the bench also asked the respondent to explain why the matter has not been decided within the time limit fixed by the Supreme Court in similar matters.
The Congress leader had approached the High Court seeking direction for the Chairman of UP Legislative Council to decide on disqualification of Singh within four weeks.
“The Supreme Court in Speaker Manipur Assembly case on January 21, 2020 had directed that disqualification petition be decided by Speaker within a period of four weeks. Also the outer limit of three months was fixed for deciding disqualification petitions from the date of filing of
disqualification petitions,” Rahul Kaushik, counsel for petitioner Deepak Singh said.
Dinesh Pratap Singh, a leader from Rae Bareli, was elected to Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on March 6, 2016 on a Congress ticket. WITH PTI INPUTS