Four more disqualified JD-U MLAs move court

Patna, Jan 7 (IANS) Four more Janata Dal-United (JD-U) rebel legislators whose membership was terminated last month for their anti-party activities, Wednesday moved the Patna High court challenging the decision of Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary.

Their move comes a day after the high court quashed the speaker's decision to terminate membership of four JD-U rebel legislators.

"We have filed a petition in the court to challenge decision of the speaker to terminate our membership," Ajit Kumar, one of the four legislators, told media here.

Poonam Dev, another disqualified legislator, said: "In our petition, we have sought court intervention against speaker's decision to terminate (membership of) people's elected representatives."

Raju Singh and Suresh Chanchal two other legislators whose membership was terminated under the provisions of the anti-defection law, said that they expected court's decision in their favour on lines of Tuesday's decision.

The high court Tuesday had quashed the state assembly speaker's decision to terminate membership of four rebel party legislators.

Observing that "defection and dissent were not synonyms", a bench of Justice J.P. Sharan had quashed the decision of speaker to terminate membership of four Janata Dal-United legislators under the anti-defection law after the ruling party had sought action against them over alleged cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha by-poll.