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Congress MLA gets a breather

CUTTACK: The beleaguered Congress MLA from Malkangiri Assembly constituency, Nimai Charan Sarkar, got a relief from the High Court on Monday when the latter granted a 30-day stay on the implementation of its own June 23 order.

The High Court last month had annulled the election of Sarkar on the grounds of massive irregularities in the election processes.

Declaring the April 2004 election of Malkangiri Assembly constituency as “void”, Justice A.S. Naidu of the High Court had ordered for a fresh election in the segment.

Challenging it, the Congress MLA had moved the High Court seeking a stay on the implementation of the June 23 order so as to enable him to file an appeal against it in the Supreme Court.

The High Court after taking cognisance of Sarkar’s petition and hearing the opposite party’s view last week, had reserved its verdict.

Delivering the verdict on Monday, Justice Naidu granted one-month “conditional’ stay on the implementation of the June 23 order enabling the Congress leader to file an appeal in the Apex court.

The HC, however, asked Sarkar not to sign in the Assembly register as an MLA during the period.

“The petitioner (Sarkar) would not attend any of the Assembly proceedings during the period and shall not avail any of the privileges granted to an MLA,” the HC said in its order.

The HC had annulled the elections of Sarkar on June 23 on the grounds that the election code of conduct was violated while there were many discrepancies in the election process.

The Congress candidate had won the 2004 elections by a margin of only 253 votes defeating his nearest rival Arabinda Dhali who contested the then elections as a BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, Dhali who has become the national general secretary of Samajwadi Party has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking an opportunity to be heard in case Sarkar files an appeal against the High Court verdict.

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