Heard over 2 days, Court reserves judgment
Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 9
The 7th session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) is scheduled to commence from February 12. However, whether 7 NPF MLAs would be able to attend the session hung in the balance as the court reserved judgment on two Interlocutory Applications (IA) connected to an intra-party legal squabble in the opposition NPF.
The squabble has its roots in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when 7 NPF MLAs declared their support for the ruling PDA candidate allegedly going against a collective diktat of the party. The NPF did not field any candidate in the 2019 Parliamentary elections, while siding with the Congress to go up against the ruling PDA coalition candidate.
The declaration of support by the 7 MLAs resulted in a bitter feud in the Assembly with the NPF filing for disqualification of the dissident party legislators under the Anti-defection law.
After more than a year of tussling in the Assembly, the Speaker ruled in favour of the 7 MLAs in July 2020 rejecting and dismissing the disqualification petition filed by the NPF.
The NPF followed it up by going to court filing a Writ Petition in the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court challenging the legality of the Speaker’s ruling. As per court records, senior NPF legislators— Imkong L Imchen and Chotisuh Sazo are named as the petitioners, while NLA the Speaker Sharingain Longkumer alongwith the 7 MLAs, namely— EE Pangteang, Eshak Konyak, Kejong Chang, BS Nganlang Phom, Toyang Chang, Thongwang Konyak and CL John are named as the respondents.
The case, which is dragging on, has seen 3 Interlocutory Applications, the first of which was disposed in December 2020.
The second IA was filed the same month by the dissident MLAs challenging the “maintainability of the writ petition” filed by the NPF. On February 1, the third IA was filed by the NPF seeking the court’s intervention to restrain the 7 MLAs from attending the upcoming Nagaland Assembly Legislative session pending a final verdict on the main Writ Petition filed in July 2020.
Both the IAs were listed for hearing concurrently on February 8. The hearing on the applications concluded on February 9.
An advocate in the case told The Morung Express, “Both applications have been heard. And the order has been reserved by the court.”
The advocate, while stating that it would be upto the court’s discretion as to when a verdict will be delivered, added that it would likely be delivered before February 12.
As to the mood in the two sides of the intra-party dispute, no substantial comment could be gathered. NPF General Secretary Achumbemo when contacted maintained that he has yet to be updated on the current progress of the court case. A senior legislator in the party and also a petitioner in the case, Imkong L Imchen also maintained a similar stance. The other petitioner, Chotisuh Sazo was out of reach.
There was silence on the other side of the party divide. Some of the respondents (MLAs), named in the case, whom The Morung Express tried to contact did not respond to calls.
