The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment after hearing the plea on the disqualification of 12 MLAs of Manipur filed by Congress MLA DD Thaisii.
On Wednesday, Manipur Governor La Ganesan declared that the 12 MLAs had not incurred disqualification on the ground of “office of profit” and dismissed the complaint filed by the Congress MLA before the governor.
During the hearing of the case on November 10, the division bench of the apex court comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna had observed that the governor of Manipur cannot “sit over” the opinion given by the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the disqualification of 12 MLAs in the “office of profit” issue.
The plea filed in the court alleged that the offices titled as Parliamentary Secretary for Manipur, are “Offices of Profit” as the said appointment elevated the 12 MLAs to the rank and status of state ministers and they were also entitled to draw higher salary and allowances.
It may be mentioned that the BJP-led state government appointed 12 MLAs, including eight from BJP, three from Naga People’s Front (NPF) and one independent as Parliamentary Secretaries.
The MLAs are L Susindro, N Indrajit, S Ranjan, S Subashchandra, K Robindro, Leishiyo Keishing, L Rameshwor, Th Satyabrata, H Dingo, Khasim Vashum, Awangbow Newmai and Asab Uddin.
Shortly after their appointment was challenged in the court, they resigned from their Parliamentary Secretary posts in 2017.
