E-Paper
‘Suspension no ground for Sengar’s disqualification from House’: UP assembly speaker
With the BJP claiming that it suspended Kuldeep Singh Sengar after he went to jail in connection with the Unnao rape case, the question that being asked by many is whether the MLA will be disqualified as a member of the lower house of UP assembly.
Before he was accused of rape, jailed BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was a member of the Vidhan Sabha’s committee on government assurances. He last appeared for the committee’s meeting held at Vidhan Bhawan on April 4, 2018. This was around three weeks prior to his arrest in the Unnao rape case.
Despite BJP’s claim on Tuesday that it took action against its MLA long back, the Vidhan Sabha, which is the lower house of the UP’s bicameral Legislature, on its part, never nominated Sengar to any of its committees after the rape case was initiated against him.
“No doubt, Sengar was a part of one of the assembly committees in his capacity of being a member of the House before his arrest in April 2018, but after that he was never nominated to any of the legislative committees,” Vidhan Sabha speaker, Hridaya Narayan Dixit clarified.
Principal secretary, Vidhan Sabha, Pradeep Dubey said the Unnao MLA had been nominated as a member of the Committee on the Government Assurances for the year 2017-18 and he last appeared for its meeting on April 4, 2018.
“After the criminal case was registered against him, the MLA was never invited for any legislative business and after 2017-18 when the term of the committee he was part of ended, he was never re-nominated for the assurance committee or any other house panel. Presently, he is not on any of the committees,” he stressed.
The committees, according to Dubey, have a one-year term and are revamped and reconstituted after the term ends. He further said that one of the leading newspapers had carried a misleading report claiming that the jailed MLA continues to be on the house committee even today. The Committee on Government Assurances that comprises not more than 15 members is nominated by the speaker to scrutinise assurances, promises, undertakings etc given by ministers from time to time on the floor of the House.
Will suspension or possible expulsion lead to disqualification as member of house?
With the BJP claiming that it suspended Sengar after he went to jail, the question that being asked by many is whether the MLA will be disqualified as a member of the lower house. “No,” says Vidhan Sabha speaker, Hridaya Narayan Dixit.
According to him there are only two grounds, as specified in the 10th schedule of the Constitution, on which a legislator can lose the membership of the house.
“A legislator is deemed to have defected if he voluntarily gives up the membership of his party or disobeys the directives of the party leadership on a vote and in such a case he loses the membership. Secondly, he will be automatically disqualified as soon as he is convicted in a criminal case by any court of the land.”
He said suspension or even expulsion, per se, does not automatically lead to disqualification of any legislator. “Even a suspended or expelled legislator has to vote in favour of his party in the house failing which he will lose the membership of that House,” he explained.
