Dimapur, May 9 (EMN): The Supreme Court is said to have heard a petition of the National People's Party (NPP) on the issue of merger with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).
The NPP issued a press release on Thursday informing about the development.
According to the NPP, the Supreme Court has issued notice to the speaker of the assembly, the MLAs, and the NDPP "as to why the relief sought by the NPP be not granted."
'The court was further pleased to issue notice on the application of NPP seeking stay of the order of speaker. The case is likely come for hearing after summer vacation i.e., first week of July, 2019,' the updates stated.
The NPP said to have filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court. The petition directly challenged the decision of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly's speaker.
The speaker is stated to have accepted the claim of merger from two of NPP's leaders Imntiba and L Khumo with the NDPP, the updates stated.
The case filed by NPP came up for hearing on May 8 before a bench of the Supreme Court, the updates stated.
"The case of NPP in Supreme Court is that both MLAs have incurred disqualifications by voluntarily giving membership of NPP by merging themselves with the NDPP and their membership of assembly should be cancelled," the NPP stated.
"Both MLAs should stand disqualified because they have incurred disqualification. It was also mentioned in the case that the order of merger passed by speaker is ex-facie illegal and beyond the power of the speaker under 10th Schedule of the Constitution."
The party stated to have highlighted in the case that in smaller states the
objective of the 10th Schedule to prevent defection is being violated 'with impunity' and 'this issue should be decided expeditiously.'
