Just within hours of Assembly Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat’s disposal of NCP State president’s petition, the Odisha High Court on Friday dropped the contempt proceedings initiated against the Speaker.
NCP chief Utkal Keshari Parida’s petition seeking disqualification of four NCP MlAs, who switched alliance to the ruling BJD, had been pending before for the Speaker’s decision since March this year.
On the other hand, Parida said he would move the Supreme Court challenging the Speaker’s ruling. He alleged at a Press conference that the Speaker is not properly following the Constitution nor does he obey the court. His late Thursday night ruling is nothing but to escape from the contempt of court charge.
The contempt of court allegation was levelled against the Speaker by Parida alleging that the Speaker was defying the orders of the High Court and the Supreme Court.
Both the courts had earlier directed the Speaker to act upon Parida’s petition immediately in which Parida had sought disqualification of the MlAs who had won the elections on NCP tickets before joining the BJD in June last year.
late on Thursday night, the Speaker disposed of Parida’s petition by quashing it on several counts, including the ground that the petition was not filed in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) and the documents annexed to the petition were not signed by the petitioner.
Accordingly on Friday, the Speaker in his affidavit urged the High Court to drop the contempt proceedings against him as he had already taken a decision with regard to Parida’s petition. “The court did not feel it necessary to continue with the contempt proceedings against the Speaker and, accordingly, dropped it,” said the Speaker’s counsel Pitambar Acharya.
Meanwhile, the MlAs, who had deserted the NCP, welcomed the Speaker’s decision, saying much ado was made about a petition that lacked merit.