HC dismisses appeal filed by Cong MLA over Speaker's decision

The Chhattisgarh High Court today dismissed an appeal filed by the state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel over a decision of the Assembly Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal to reject a no-confidence motion against himself.

The division bench of Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice Pritinker Diwaker dismissed the appeal against Agrawal's decision to reject a no-confidence motion brought against him by the opposition Congress in 2014.

Additional Advocate General Prafulla Bharat said the judges held that the issue in the appeal was now only of academic interest because the session was over.

Baghel's lawyer Sudip Shrivastav said that Congress had given a notice of no-confidence motion following allegations that a trust managed by Agrawal had encroached on government land near Mahadev Ghat here and done some construction.

The Speaker dismissed the notice, saying it must be moved 14 days prior to the motion, and the session was scheduled to end before 14 days.

Baghel challenged the decision in the High Court, but a single judge dismissed his petition after which he filed an appeal.

Baghel's plea raised the issue whether a person against whom the notice for no-confidence motion is given can adjudicate it.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)