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Haryana Speaker restores unseated Kalka MLA’s membership
The Vidhan Sabha membership of unseated Haryana MLA Pradeep Chaudhary was restored on Thursday by Speaker Gian Chand Gupta with effect from April 19, the day Himachal Pradesh high court suspended his conviction in a criminal case
The Vidhan Sabha membership of unseated Haryana MLA Pradeep Chaudhary was restored on Thursday by Speaker Gian Chand Gupta with effect from April 19, the day Himachal Pradesh high court suspended his conviction in a criminal case. He was elected from Kalka on a Congress ticket.
The Speaker on Thursday said Chaudhary’s membership of legislative assembly stands restored following a stay granted on his conviction by the HC.
In January, Chaudhary was convicted and sentenced by a Nalagarh court for three years of imprisonment in a case of rioting.
The Congress leader was subsequently unseated as a member of the Haryana legislative assembly as per Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act.
The disqualification provision says that a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years will be disqualified from the date of such conviction and will continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release.
Following the HC order, Chaudhary’s counsel Bipin Negi had said that a single judge bench of justice Sandeep Sharma of the Himachal HC has suspended his conviction.
“The Solan sessions court had already stayed his sentence. Suspension of the conviction will continue till the appellate court decides our appeal against his conviction,” Negi had said.
Legal experts said that if the HC stays the conviction of an unseated MLA, the assembly speaker will have to restore his or her membership.
