Imphal: Manipur Legislative Assembly Speaker, Yumnam Khemchand, on Tuesday heard the infamous disqualification petitions filed against the MAHUD minister, Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh and the tribunal has reserved its judgment by February 12.
“The Speaker had reserved judgment in respect of disqualification petition filed against minister Shyamkumar and have fixed the date on February 12 for filing if any additional document to be submitted,” said senior counsel HG Hasnain of the petitioner.
Speaker has given liberty to all the parties to file any additional file documents if required till February 12. Thereafter judgment will deliver, he added.
The hearing of the long-pending case of Shyamkumar took place after the Supreme Court, in a ruling, directed the Speaker’s Tribunal to take up the matter within four weeks on January 21 this year.
The adjournment application filed by Shyamkumar’s counsel for taking up the matter only after February 11, as the matter has been pending for quite a long time was rejected given the upcoming budget session to be commenced from February 14, 2020.
During the hearing, the Speaker’s Tribunal instructed the minister to file additional documents, if required, on or before February 12 .
In 2017 assembly elections, minister Shyamkumar was elected from a Congress ticket from Andro constituency, however, he switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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Congress members K Meghachandra and Fazur Rani had filed the disqualification petition against Shyamkumar after his unceremonious exit from the party.
In March 2017, Shyamkumar became a Cabinet minister in the N Biren Singh-led BJP government without resigning from the Congress party or seeking re-election, thus violating the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
The final hearing of disqualification proceedings against the minister took place after two years and 10 months of Shyamkumar became the minister for municipality and administration, housing and urban development (MAHUD), town planning, forest and environment, horticulture and soil conservation in the present BJP coalition government.
Meanwhile, disqualification petitions against the seven other Congress MLAs, who had joined BJP along with Shyamkumar, would be heard soon.
