Patna: In a setback to Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s camp ahead of the floor test, the Patna High Court on Thursday disallowed four dissident JD(U) MLAs from casting their ballot in the crucial confidence vote on Friday.
The four MLAs had prayed to the court to grant them permission for voting tomorrow but a division bench of justices Iqbal Ahmad Ansari and Chakradhari Sharan Singh did not allow them.
The division bench stayed the earlier order of single bench of Justice Jyoti Sharan, which had on January 16 set aside the order of Assembly Speaker to terminate membership of the four MLAs and restored their membership.
The MLAs — Gyanendra Singh Gyanoo, Ravindra Rai, Rahul Sharma and Neeraj Singh Babloo — approached the court on the basis of the order by Justice Sharan. The order was challenged before the division bench by former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shrawan Kumar.
They have been opposing Nitish Kumar and were working overtime in favour of Manjhi.
