Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has ruled that the Governor of Odisha should expeditiously dispose of a petition seeking disqualification of several MLAs by November 8.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice SK Panigrahi was adjudicating a plea wherein it was contended that a post-election petition dated May 28, 2019 filed before the Governor seeking the disqualification of concerned MLAs had not yet been disposed of in accordance with law.
In the post-election petition filed under Article 192 of the Constitution, disqualification of the concerned persons was sought for being MLAs under Article 191 (1)(a) of the Constitution at the time of their election.
The Odisha Offices of Profit (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Act, 2016 had been enacted with retrospective effect from January 18, 2016. Consequently, the Governor had appointed chairpersons to 30 District Planning Committees with Minister of State rank and status August 9, 2019.
As a result, a fresh petition was filed by the petitioner before the Governor September 27, 2019 under Article 192 of the Constitution seeking the disqualification of the appointed legislators.
Thereafter, the petitioner had filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court for relief which was disposed of by granting the petitioner the liberty to approach the concerned High Court. Consequently, the present writ petition had been filed.
Taking into consideration the grievance raised, the HC said, “This Court directs that petitioner’s two petitions dated 28th May, 2019 and 27th September 2019 shall be disposed of by the Governor of Orissa, after obtaining opinion from the Election Commission of India, not later than 8th November, 2021.”
“The decision of the Governor of Odisha shall be communicated to the Petitioner not later than 15th November, 2021,”the HC said in its ruling.