After almost 10 months of filing disqualification petition against the seven NPF MLAs for defying the decision of the party during the parliamentary election 2019, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) has taken the matter to Gauhati High Court seeking disposal of the petition lying with Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) speaker.
Reliable party sources told Nagaland Post that petition has been filed in the higher court since NLA speaker did not act on it. They said that the petitioners were expecting court directives to NLA speaker to dispose the case so that suo motu case could be taken up.
It may be recalled that NPF had suspended seven of its MLAs from the both primary and active membership of the party on April 16, 2019 for extending support to the ruling National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate in the Lok Sabha election, 2019.
The seven NPF legislators included Kejong Chang (Tuensang Sadar II), EE Pangteang (48 Moka), Eshak Konyak (Aboi), CL John (Tehok), BS Nganlang (Tamlu), N Thongwang Konyak (Mon Town) and Toyang Chang (Tuensang Sadar-I).
Meanwhile, in a similar case in the Manipur Legislative Assembly, the Supreme Court in January had directed the Speaker’s tribunal to decide the disqualification petition within four weeks.
The disqualification petition was filed by Congress MLAs in 2018 against one of its congress member Th Shyamkumar under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. Congress MLA defected to BJP in the run up to government formation after the assembly elections in 2017. The petitioners had approached the Supreme Court after the case was pending at the speaker’s tribunal and in January 2020.