Law Graduate Law Maker violated Rule 240 (1) enabling Lok Sabha to reject the resignation; decision soon
In what could be termed as a major attempt to mislead the people of Kashmir valley the resignation of mainstream leader from his seat in Lok Sabha has once again proved that Kashmiris have always been used a tool for vested interests by few a politicians and serious attempts of development and dialogue take a back seat.
Tariq Hamid Karra, PDP stalwart and Member Parliament from Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency announced his resignation on September 15 at his residence in a hurriedly called press conference citing present unrest and loss of lives as the reason behind it notwithstanding a number of irritants reportedly existing between the leader and the party.
However, the Lok Sabha Secretariat denied having received resignation of Karra even a week after the formal announcement made by him through press conference. The absence of any communication on resignation lead to lot of speculation in the media over the move behind the resignation. After heated debated, Karra, as per a local daily dispatched his personal assistant to New Delhi late on evening of 22nd September 2016 with comments that it will be submitted on the next day.
In startling revelation, sources in New Delhi told that the resignation of Tariq Karra is bound to be rejected as there is deliberate attempt to circumvent the rules to enable its rejection to save his seat the parliament. This could be owing to very few takers to Karra’s staged political martyrdom which has been well discussed in media as without much impact. The residence of Karra in heart of Srinagar town wore a deserted look for the week past.
The resignation of Karra , as per sources in Lok Sabha secretariat, is in complete violation of Rule 240 (I) which inter alia contains that the Member Parliament desirous of resigning from the membership of the House shall do so on the format notified and explicitly provides that the MP “shall not give any reason for resignation” which makes the resignation explicitly rejected. Karra, holding a degree of LLB (Bachelor of Law) and knowing the provisions well, still forwarded his resignation with a page long note regarding reasons of his resignation eyeing to benefit from Clause I of Rule 240.
Earlier this year, resignation of Rajya Sabha MP wanted in hundreds of crores of bank loan default cases tendered his resignation citing moral grounds and media trials as the reason which was rejected by the Ethics Committee headed by Dr Karan Singh however sensing the grave legal default on part of Mallya the final call was taken by Dr Hamid Ansari as chair of Rajya Sabha.
A number of MPs earlier had resigned during Telangana agitation which were never accepted as reasons were mentioned in the resignation later contrary to rules and such reasons had the legal or political remedy available which make the resignation ultra vires the constitution.
In this backdrop, political analysts and keen observers of Kashmir situation term this development as vindication of their apprehensions aired earlier in view of the manner resignation was announced. meanwhile, PDP headquarters in Srinagar conformed not having received resignation of Karra from party membership till date.
The final call will now be taken by Speaker, Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan on fate of resignation as it is violative of basic tenets of resignation and there is no precedence of acceptance of such a resignation.
INAK