By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Odisha High Court Monday quashed the ruling of state assembly Speaker Pradip Amat on the membership of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator who had been accused of defying party whip, a lawyer said.
Bhimsen Choudhury, the member from Bonai assembly constituency, had abstained from voting during the Rajya Sabha polls in 2010 despite a party whip. He was subsequently suspended from the party.
Describing his defiance of whip as a violation of anti-defection law, the BJP had moved the speaker to seek his disqualification from the assembly membership. However, the speaker, in a ruling in March this year, rejected the demand.
BJP legislative party secretary Karendra Majhi had then moved the high court, seeking quashing of the speaker’s ruling.
“The court quashed the ruling of the speaker and asked him to re-consider the matter. The court also has given next four weeks for the speaker to pass a final order,” Majhi’s lawyer Gopal Agarwal told reporters.
The speaker said he has yet to receive the court’s direction.