SHILLONG: The hearing on the PIL on dual posts pending with the Full Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya will be held on Monday.
The matter has been listed as the last item (no.6) of the Full Bench.
During the previous hearing on October 14, the Full Bench had deferred the hearing to October 27 but the matter was again listed for November 2 since the Chief Justice was out of town.
On October 9, the High Court Division Bench had referred the matter to Governor V. Shanmuganathan for a final call since MLAs who hold the posts of MDCs will no longer be protected under the Prevention of Disqualification (Members of Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya) (Amendment) Act, 2015 which came into effect on from Oct 1.
While seven MLAs had quit the posts of MDCs following the implementation of the dual post Act, KHADC Chief Executive Member P.N. Syiem, who is also an MLA, is yet to give up his post.
Earlier, Syiem had written a letter to Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Speaker A.T. Mondal urging him to dismiss any complaint against him since disqualification provided under Article 191 of the Constitution of India would not apply to Members of the Legislative Assembly holding the posts of Members of the District Council.
Sources said that the Speaker, after consulting the Law department, had maintained that he had no role as far as the issue of dual post was concerned compared to the matter related to the anti defection law.
After the High Court had previously made it clear that the Governor should take a decision on the matter, the Raj Bhavan had filed an affidavit with the Court explaining that there was no varied view on the matter while agreeing to the stand taken by former Governor K.K. Paul who had expressed reservation over MLAs holding the posts of MDCs.
Sources added that with the assent of the dual post Bill by the Governor and the subsequent notification by the Government, the view of the Governor and the Government is same that MLAs cannot hold dual posts other than those exempted as per the Prevention of Disqualification Act, 1972.
