A writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) yesterday challenging the legality of Article 70 of the constitution, which allows the cancellation of membership of a lawmaker for voting against his or her political party. Supreme Court lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed the petition with the related branch of the HC saying that the Article 70 was against democracy and articles 7, 19, 26, 27, 44, 31 and 119 of the constitution. The cabinet secretary, secretary to the parliament secretariat, and the law secretary have been made respondents to the petition.
According to the Article 70, a person elected as a member of parliament (MP) at an election at which he was nominated as a candidate by a political party shall vacate his/her seat if s/he a) resigns from that party or b) votes in parliament against that party; but shall not thereby be disqualified for subsequent election as a member of parliament.
Later, Akond told reporters that the Article 70 is undemocratic and it created obstacle to the values of constitutional democracy.
“The state would run under the leadership of the elected representatives. This is the spirit of democracy.  If parliament membership is cancelled for crossing floor by giving vote against his or her political party, he can’t independently vote for the public interest,” he added.