Cuttack: The Orissa High Court today rejected the order issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) to disqualify the membership of the nine BJD councillors of Keonjhar Municipality for violating anti-defection law in February 2016.
It may be recalled that the nine rebel councillors of the municipality Sushree Sangeeta Nanda, Dillip Kumar Behera, Swarnalata Sahu, Prabhati Patnaik, Sabita Sethi, Kumudini Nayak, Satrughna Nayak, Sunil Kumar Nayak and Kuna Naik were charged with violation of anti-defection law as per the amendment to Section 17 of the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950 (Odisha Municipal Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2015.
Defying the party whip, the nine dissident councillors had voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Meena Majhi, Keonjhar municipality chairperson who belonged to their own party, on December 28, 2015. Majhi was subsequently unseated after 15 councillors, including the nine from BJD, in the 21-member house voted against her.
Though the councillors urged the SEC not to disqualify them, the commission cancelled their membership in February 22, 2016.
Later the councillors moved the High Court arguing that the disqualification is not applicable in their case as they had moved the no-confidence motion against the chairperson before the amended provision came into force.
Meanwhile, the High Court had also asked the SEC not to come up with a notification for re-election for the nine councillor posts of the municipality till further order.
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