Monday, April 17 2006 15:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Apr 17, 2006) issued notices to UP Assembly Speaker and 40 BSP-breakaway group MLAs on a petition by BSP Legislature Party leader S P Maurya, challenging the Allahabad High Court order remanding the disqualification issue of BSP-breakaway MLAs to the Speaker.

A Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice C K Thakker directed that Maurya's petition be tagged along with the main petition filed by BSP breakway group MLAs, which is pending before a Bench headed by Justice K G Balakrishnan.

Earlier, on March 24, a Bench headed by Justice K G Balakrishnan had stayed the High Court order and referred the matter to a larger Bench, saying that the breakaway MLAs would be recognised as a separate group in the Assembly till the matter was decided as the MLAs had to be given a standing in the House.

Maurya has sought an interim order restraining the breakway MLAs from functioning as ministers in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

In his petition filed through counsel Shail Kumar Dwivedi, Maurya contended that the High Court was not justified in remanding the issue to the Speaker to decide afresh the 13 disqualification petitions in 2003, and that the court should have decided the matter itself.

Maurya submitted that he represented a political party with a national image which had been seriously impaired due to 'unconstitutional conduct' of the members who defected.

He contended that the breakaway BSP MLAs were neither members of the BSP nor the Samajwadi Party.