CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Pradip Amat, Speaker of the Assembly, over his rejection of a petition seeking disqualification of Bonai MLA Bhimsen Choudhury. The MLA had been suspended by the BJP for defying the party whip.Acting on a writ petition filed by BJP Legislature Party secretary Karendra Majhi, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopalagowda and Justice BN Mohapatra has issued notice to the Speaker and Choudhury directing them to file their responses in two weeks.Majhi had filed the petition challenging the order passed by the Speaker on February 24 rejecting his petition seeking disqualification of Choudhury from the Assembly. The order passed by the Speaker suffers from gross violation of principles of natural justice and has been passed without assigning adequate and intelligible reasons, the petition said.According to the petitioner, the BJP issued a whip to all its MLAs to cast their votes in favour of Independent candidate Tara Ranjan Patnaik during the Rajya Sabha elections in June 2010. However, in gross defiance of the whip, Choudhury abstained intentionally.He had not sought the permission of the party for doing so. While acting against the legislator, the BJP filed a petition before the Speaker requesting him to disqualify Choudhury from the post of MLA. But the Speaker rejected the same without citing any reason.Holding the order arbitrary and mala fide, Majhi had appealed to the Court to quash the order and direct the Speaker to examine the petition in accordance with law.
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