Tribunal dismisses Shyamkumar's petition

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Aug 3: The Manipur Legislative Assem- bly Speaker 's Tribunal today rejected the miscellaneous petition filed by MAHUD Minister Th Shyamkumar which prayed for rejection of the disqualification petitions filed against him on technical ground.
The tribunal had reserved the order concerning the miscellaneous petition filed by Minister Th Shyam-kumar to reject some of the disqualification petitions filed against him under the 10th Schedule based on alleged technical errors from July 23 till today.
The order passed by the Speaker's Tribunal mentioned that altogether 15 Members of the 11th Mani-pur Legislative Assembly have filed disqualification cases before the tribunal under the 10th schedule of the Constitution against Minister Th Shyamkumar as respondent.
All the petitions filed by 15 Congress MLAs were clubbed together by an order of the tribunal on July 27.
Shyamkumar raised preliminary objection to main- tainability of the respective petitions and prayed either to reject 11 disqualification cases (out of the 15) as not maintainable on the sole premise that the petitioners are not in conformity with the provisions of the Member of the Manipur Legis- lative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules 1986 or to pass an order as deemed fit in accordance with the law.
The counsels of the petitioners prayed for imme- diate hearing of the application, stating that the pre- liminary objection is nothing but mere tactic of respondent Th Shyamkumar to delay further proceedings of the case.
As agreed by the counsels of both parties, the Speaker's Tribunal proceeded with the case.
In the meantime, the respondent's counsels sub- mitted that the petitions before the tribunal must comply with provisions of the Member of Manipur Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on the Ground of Defection) Rules 1986.
After hearing both parties, the tribunal reserved the order and liberty was also granted to the petitioners and the respondent to submit any relevant document and written objection in the meantime.
Two petitioners filed their respective written objection/ written argument on July 31.
Their counsels contended that the deficiency, if any, was a mere procedural error and contended that the provisions of the Member of Manipur Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rule 1986, are made for giving effect to the provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India.
The counsels further submitted that the preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the petitions, was nothing but meant to delay the matter further, and also submitted that Minister Th Shyamkumar did not raise the same objection before the High Court of Manipur.
Shyamkumar, on the other hand, prayed for outright rejecting of the argument.  
The Speaker's Tribunal, having heard the counsels of both the parties and having gone through the petitions and the case laws cited by both the parties, ruled that it did not see any merit in the miscellaneous petition filed by Minister Th Shyamkumar and as such dismissed his petition.
The Speaker's Tribunal also asked Shyamkumar to submit his reply/objection in connection with the 15 disqualification petitions on or before August  17 and fixed the next round of hearing after conclusion of the forthcoming monsoon session of the State Assembly.