Chandigarh, June 7, 2011. The evidence on behalf of Sh. Kuldip Bishnoi, MLA and President of Haryana Janhit Congress was concluded today before the Speaker Haryana Vidhan Sabha in all the five cases, which have been filed by Sh. Bishnoi seeking the disqualification of 5 HJC defector MLAs, namely Sh. Satpal Sangwan, Sh. Narender Singh, Sh. Vinod Bhayana, Sh. Zile Ram and Sh. Dharam Singh, on the ground that after having been elected to Haryana Vidhan Sabha on the ticket of HJC in October 2009, they defected to Congress in violation of the Anti-defection Law.The Speaker, today, also asked the 5 MLAs to file the list of their witnesses and their affidavits by Aug 1, 2011, with a copy in advance to the counsel for the petitioner and fixed Aug 5, 2011 as the next date of hearing in the case.
During the hearing today, Sh. Kuldeep Bishnoi was present with his lawyers Saravshri Satya Pal Jain and Sh. Dheeraj Jain, whereas out of 5, 3 defector MLAs namely Sh. Satpal Sangwan, Sh. Zile Ram and Sh. Narender Singh were present with their lawyers Saravshri Harbhagwan Singh, Sh. A.S. Sahney and Sh. T.V. Vashisht.
During the cross examination, when Mr.Harbhagwan Singh started asking questions from Mr. Kuldip Bishnoi as to from which school he passed his 8th & 10th class, from which College he did his graduation and where was he residing during those days, Mr. Satya Pal Jain seriously objected to putting these questions by saying that they are totally irrelevant to the issue in dispute. However, Ch. Harbhagwan Singh defended the asking of such questions by saying that he wants to challenge the veracity of the statement of the witness. After heated arguments between Harbhagwan Singh and Sh. Satya Pal Jain, the Speaker gave his ruling rejecting the objection of Mr. Jain and allowed Ch. Harbhagwan Singh to put such questions to Sh. Bishnoi.
It may be mentioned here that a Single Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court had on December 20, 2011 directed the Speaker to decide all the 5 disqualification petitions within 4 months, which orded has been challenged by the Speaker before a Division Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in which the Division Bench stayed the operation of the order by the Ld. Single Judge. This appeal is now fixed for arguments before the High Court on July 18, 2011.