Cuttack: Orissa High Court on Friday invalidated the order by way of which the State Election Commission had disqualified the membership of nine BJD councillors of Keonjhar Municipality for violating anti-defection law.

The election commission had issued the order in February 22, 2016 by invoking the amended provisions of Section 17 of the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950, (Odisha Municipal Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2015.

The BJD councillors were declared disqualified as members of the municipal council as they had voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Keonjhar Municipality chairperson Meena Majhi of the BJD despite a party whip on December 28, 2015.

Sabita Sethi and the other eight disqualified BJD councillors had challenged the State Election Commission order in the high court. Acting on it, the high court had in an interim order on February 28, 2016, directed the election body not to come up with a notification for election for the nine councillors falling vacant after the disqualification order.

Allowing the petition, the single-judge bench of Justice S.K. Mishra set aside the SEC order on the ground that it was issued giving retrospecrive effect to the amended provisions of the act.

The court endorsed the contention of petitioner counsel Amit Bose that a law can be only given effect prospectively and not prospectively.

The amendment was brought by the government after the no-confidence motion was passed and nine of the 14 BJD councillors in the 21-member Keonjhar municipal council voted in its favour, resulting in ouster of the chairperson.

The nine rebel councillors of the municipality who retain their membership by virtue of the high court order on Friday are Sushree Sangeeta Nanda, Dillip Kumar Behera, Swarnalata Sahu, Prabhati Patnaik, Sabita Sethi, Kumudini Nayak, Satrughna Nayak, Sunil Kumar Nayak and Kuna Naik.

Maoist on fast

Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda is on hunger strike inside the Berhampur Circle Jail, demanding speedy disposal of cases pending against him.