Wednesday, September 13 2006 15:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: Jharkhand Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari today (Sept 13, 2006) began hearing disqualification petitions against three legislators, a day before Chief Minister Arjun Munda seeks a trust vote in the house.

Namdhari had issued notices to Enos Ekka, Kamlesh Singh and Stephen Marandi asking why they should not be disqualified under the anti-defection law. Ekka and Kamlesh Singh are among the four who had withdrawn support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government.

Proceedings against the three began at 10.20 a.m. with the speaker first hearing the case against Ekka, who belongs to the Jharkhand Party (JP) and is charged with violating the whip of his party.

Former JP president N.E. Horo had issued a whip to Ekka in March last year to vote in favour of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), but the legislator went with the NDA. The case has been pending for the last 16 months.

Kamlesh Singh belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and also violated the whip when he voted for the NDA.

The third, Stephen Marandi, is charged with joining the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Democratic despite winning the elections as an independent.

Each of the three legislators has been given two hours to present his respective side.

Namdhari had issued notice against the three legislators on Sep 7 and asked them to reply by Sep 11. Lawyers of all three had sought one week to file their reply.

The speaker had been initially petitioned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to disqualify the three on grounds that they had violated the constitution.

The case against the three has been strengthened after the Supreme Court Monday refused to intervene and asked them to file their reply to the speaker.

This has also greatly bolstered the beleaguered Arjun Munda government, reduced to a minority after the four rebel ministers Enos Ekka, Harinarayan Rai, Madhu Koda and Kamlesh Singh withdrew support on Sep 5.

At present, the Munda Government enjoys support of 39 legislators, including the speaker, in the 82-member house.