Speaker hearing Babulal’s case in unconstitutional manner: Lawyer

Ranchi: Former chief minister Babulal Marandi’s counsel R N Sahay on Tuesday claimed that defection case of his client in the court of Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha speaker Rabindranath Mahto was not being heard in a constitutional manner.
Sahay on Tuesday filed a petition before the court pleading that it may pass its order on the preliminary objections that his team put forth earlier. However, the court is now hearing the case on the merit of eight points framed based on the pleadings of different political parties.
Opposing the speaker’s move, Sahay told TOI: “No order was passed on the preliminary objections that were raised by us. We objected to it and asked how can hearing on merit take place unless an order is passed without including a chunk of our objections.” He also said the speaker’s court had left out all but one of the issues which were raised by them while framing the case on merit.
“We had raised the issue that Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey had been expelled from Jharkhand Vikas Morcha - Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and hence they did not have any right to vote in the party’s central working committee which approved the merger with BJP. That issue was not included. We had also raised the issue that Yadav and Tirkey met the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi on January 23-24 and then joined the party. Did they have any right to vote on the issue of the merger? This objection, which we raised, was also not included,” he added.
Sahay said the court did not take up the issue where they questioned if the tribunal had right to maintain a case of defection after the Election Commission held JVM-P’s merger with the BJP as legal.