Meghalaya Speaker gives 7 days to 10 MLAs to respond to Congress’ charges

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 1, 2021

Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh on Wednesday decided to give seven days time to former chief minister Mukul Sangma and 9 other MLAs to reply with regards to the Congress’ petition seeking their disqualification for defecting to the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

In a letter to the MLAs, Assembly’s Commissioner & Secretary Andrew Simons said, “After careful examination of the petition, Speaker has directed that a copy of the petition may be forwarded to you for obtaining your comments to the charges, as required under Rule 7(3)(b), with a request that your reply to the charges may kind be furnished to the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Secretariat within seven days of the receipt of this letter.”

This came after a petition was filed by Congress Legislature Party leader Dr M Ampareen Lyngdoh on November 29.

She had requested the Speaker to consider disqualification of all the 12 MLAs as required under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India read with the provisions of Rule 6 of the Members of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1988.

Welcoming the Speaker’s decision, Ampareen said, “This is important for us that the office of the Speaker has acted promptly on my petition.”

“The process will move forward in accordance with law and I am confident that I have justifiable grounds to seek the disqualification of the membership of Dr Mukul Sangma and others,” she reiterated.

“The Speaker was pleased to provide only 7 days notice for the respective MLAs to respond, in other words, it is some sort of a show cause notice. I, at this stage, do not want to comment further on the subject matter and we shall open this discussion when the moment is right. This is a significant moment for our party,” the CLP leader added.

Ampareen further informed that she had lodged a complaint against all the MLAs barring two – Charles Pyngrope and Shitlang Pale.

“I will also be submitting a petition of complaint against them as well, in a day or two,” she said while asserting “In this effort, I also speak for the conscience of others including the right of the electorate to ensure that their elected representatives do not make a mockery of our democracy.”