Cuttack, June 18: Orissa High Court today quashed the ruling of the Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly relating to the voluntary abstention of BJP MLA Bhimsen Choudhury from voting in the Rajya Sabha elections in 2010 and asked him to reconsider his decision.

Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat had dismissed the petition filed by the BJP legislature party seeking disqualification of the Bonai MLA from the membership of the Assembly on charge of defying a party whip. Amat had taken the position that voting for the Rajya Sabha “is not a proceeding” of the Assembly and had rejected the BJP’s petition.

The 2010 Rajya Sabha polls had witnessed alleged horse-trading with three MLAs — Bhimsen Choudhury of the BJP and Shibaji Majhi and Gregory Minz, both of the Congress — abstaining from voting which resulted in the BJD winning all the three seats.

The high court today quashed the Speaker’s order and asked Amat to pass his “final” order on the BJP petition within four weeks. After suspending Choudhury, BJP legislature party secretary Karendra Majhi had filed the petition before the Speaker seeking his disqualification. Subsequently, he had challenged the Speaker’s order in the high court.

“While issuing the quashing order, the division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice S.K. Mishra today directed the Speaker to reconsider the petition and pass a final order within four weeks,” Majhi’s counsel Gopal Agarwal told The Telegraph.