Six legislators of BJP today sought four weeks’ time to submit their reply on the notice issued by the Jharkhand High Court on Friday. The MLAs – Randhir Kumar Singh, Amar Kumar Bauri, Ganesh Ganjhu, Alok Chaurasia, Janki Prasad Yadav and Navin Jaiswal -- who had changed sides from JVM after being elected to the State Assembly in early 2015 in the State are facing charges of defection after a petition was filed by JVM chief Babulal Marandi and MLA Pradeep Yadav in the Jharkhand High Court.
Although Randhir Kumar Singh and Alok Chaurasia had appeared before the court through their advocates on Friday, the court had expressed displeasure of another four MLAs for ignoring its notice and not appearing before it on the day of hearing.
JVM’s advocate RN Sahay said that the four MLAs represented by their advocates said that they will appear and give their reply on the notice. “The MLAs requested to the court of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad to give them four weeks’ time to file their reply. The court granted them four weeks time. The court will reopen on June 10 and it is likely that the court will hear the case same week in June,” he said.
Notably, the Jharkhand High Court on March 28 had ordered to issue notices to the six MLAs and had asked them to appear before the court after four weeks to present their side in the case. The court had also asked to issue notice to Jharkhand Assembly advocate Vinod Sahu and present his reply.
Also, the Speaker’s tribunal in Jharkhand Assembly had on February 20 validated the joining of six legislators elected on the tickets of the JVM during 2014 Assembly polls into the BJP. The decision was taken after four-year long hearing at the Speaker’s tribunal that started in 2015.
Eight JVM leaders had become legislators after the 2014 Assembly elections in the State but soon six of them went to the BJP taking the strength of BJP to 43 in the 81 member house. The MLAs who changed sides contended that their party merged with the BJP, however the JVM chief filed a complaint with the Speaker’s tribunal, which after a long hearing of the case validated the cause of the six MLAs and dismissed Marandi’s petition.