Patna, July 31: The high court today granted permission to four rebel JDU legislators to attend the monsoon session of the Assembly from August 3.

The single bench of Justice Rakesh Kumar ruled that the four MLAs - Poonam Devi (Digha), Ajit Kumar (Kanti), Raju Singh (Sahebganj) and Suresh Chanchal (Sakra) - were free to participate in the proceedings of the House but they would not be entitled to vote or draw any emoluments. The legislators were disqualified by the Assembly Speaker in December last year.

The high court directive would not have any bearing on the stability of the government because the JDU has a comfortable majority in the Assembly with the support of the RJD and the Congress. But it is of political significance in the poll-bound state.

Political observers described today's judgment as a fresh blow to the ruling JDU from the judiciary because Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary, who disqualified the legislators, is a party MLA from Imamganj. The JDU-led state government suffered a couple of setbacks in the high court earlier this week.

The court had put an interim ban on the state government's Badh Chala Bihar campaign on Tuesday, terming it "misuse of public money". On Thursday, a division bench of the high court upheld the judgment of a single bench to quash the state government's order of giving reservation to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes government employees in promotion.

Reacting to the high court's order today, dissident MLA Ajit told The Telegraph: "The verdict is the victory of law. The court's decision proved that the action of the Assembly Speaker was illegal and unconstitutional. We shall go to the people and tell them the truth."

The four legislators expelled from the JDU have been supporting former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and his newly floated Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular.

The four MLAs - Poonam, Ajit, Raju and Suresh - had filed a petition in Patna High Court on January 7, challenging Speaker Chaudhary's order terminating their Assembly membership on December 27, 2014. The Speaker had held the four MLAs guilty of fielding and supporting two Independent candidates against the official JDU nominees in the Rajya Sabha byelections on June 19, 2014.

Later, they filed an interlocutory application seeking relief like four other dissident JDU MLAs Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, Niraj Kumar Bablu, Ravindra Rai and Rahul Sharma got from the Supreme Court, which stayed the Patna High Court's order upholding the Speaker's decision to annul their membership.

Justice Rakesh Kumar observed that the court was of the opinion that since the matter was sub-judice, in the larger interest, it would be necessary to allow the prayer of the petitioners. Hence, the disqualification of the petitioners from the membership of the Legislative Assembly should be stayed, the court said.

The rebel legislators' lawyer, SBK Mangalam, tried to convince the court that the case of his clients was exactly the same as of Gyanu and the three other legislators. The principal additional advocate-general (PAAG), Lalit Kishore, representing Shravan Kumar, the chief whip of the ruling party in the Assembly, and senior counsel Y.V. Giri who represented the Bihar Legislative Assembly, iterated that unless the writ petition was heard on merit, no order should be passed on the interlocutory application.

Later in the day, the four dissident MLAs went to the Assembly to give a copy of the high court's verdict to the Assembly secretary at 4pm. But the secretary refused to accept it and left the Assembly premises, said rebel MLA Ajit.

The rebel MLAs sat on a dharna on the Assembly premises in protest against the secretary's act.