India News | Suspension from Assembly Politically Motivated : BJP MLAs Tell HC

Kolkata, May 11 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari and four other BJP MLAs submitted before Calcutta High Court on Wednesday that their suspension from the House by Speaker Biman Banerjee was politically motivated and against the principles of natural justice.

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Appearing for the BJP MLAs, senior counsel Jaydeep Kar submitted before Justice Rajasekhar Mantha that no show cause notice was served on them and the decision to suspend them was taken without giving them a chance to present their views.

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Claiming that the suspension of the BJP MLAs was politically motivated and against the principles of natural justice, he told the court that it is an attempt to prevent opposition members from performing their duties in the House as representatives of their electorate.

Kar submitted that the allegations levelled against the petitioners are "vague" and "malafide" and prayed that the suspension be set aside.

The suspension for the remaining period of the session of the House is excessive and disproportionate to the alleged misconduct by the petitioners, he said

Stating that Speaker Biman Banerjee in his affidavit has questioned the maintainability of the petition claiming that the court cannot interfere with a decision of the speaker in running the affairs of the House, Kar submitted that the court of law has the power of judicial review of any action which violates the principles of natural justice and a person's constitutional rights.

The bench directed that the hearing in the matter will continue on Thursday.

Justice Mantha had on April 25 directed Banerjee to file affidavit-in-opposition on the petition by Adhikari and the four BJP MLAs Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Tigga and Narahari Mahato challenging their suspension from the House for the remaining period of the session for alleged misconduct on March 28.

The judge had said earlier during the hearing in the case that the expression 'session' would mean the entire period of the Assembly until it is prorogued by the governor.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)