The Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench of on Monday fixed September 8 as the next date for hearing the disqualification petition against seven NPF legislators.
After Monday’s hearing, a two-bench judge of Justice Songkhupchung Serto and Justice Hukato Swu also ordered that records of the disqualification case be called from the office of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly speaker’s office.
Counsel for the petitioners- Chotisuh Sazo and L. Imkong Imchen (NPF MLAs)-informed the Court that its July 23 order to serve notices to the seven MLAs was not possible due to pandemic and also because the counsel for the respondents refused to accept the notice.
Considering the facts and circumstances submitted by the learned counsel of the petitioners and keeping in view the fact that NLA was scheduled to sit on August 13, the court directed that notice to the respondent be served through the office of NLA commissioner & secretary. Therefore, the order stated that appropriate order may be passed to serve the notice to the respondents through the office of the NLA speaker.
The court also ordered that the registry should take steps to reach the notice and copies of the petition to NLA commissioner & secretary’s office on or before August 13.
At Monday’s hearing, only the counsel for the Speaker NLA appeared while none appeared on behalf of the seven NPF MLAs.