The Congress Party will move the Supreme Court if it has to in its pursuit of the disqualification of the three rebel MLAs who quit the party in favour of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP).
Speaking to reporters today, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Vincent H Pala said that the party will wait for the ruling of the Speaker before deciding its future course of action, which could go down the court route
The Congress has formally complained to Speaker Thomas A Sangma over his decision to allow for the technical merger of the Congress in the Assembly with the NPP given that the rebel trio – Umsning MLA Dr Celestine Lyngdoh, Mawhati MLA Charles Marngar and Nongstoin MLA Gabriel Wahlang – made up 75 per cent of the number of Congress legislators.
The MPCC, however, has argued that at the time Sangma accepted the merger, Marngar and Wahlang had been suspended from the Congress and thus had no legal right to merge the party with the NPP.
“If we are not happy with the decision (of the Speaker) we will go to the High Court and if we are not happy with the ruling of the High Court we will go to the Supreme Court,” Pala said today.
Matthew Anthony, All India Congress Committee joint secretary, said that if the Speaker was sure of his decision then he need not have referred the complaint to the state’s Advocate General, which he has now done. Indeed, it would have been better had Sangma referred the matter to the state’s top lawyer before accepting the merger in the first place, he added.
“Why does he want a legal opinion? That exposes the weakness or the doubtfulness or the fear of failure in the Speaker. If it goes for an appeal he will have an unfavourable situation because he decided in haste,” Anthony said, adding that the law should decide who is at fault.
