Thiruvananthapuram: Speaker P. Sreeramak-rishnan made it clear that it was not his personal decision to keep Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislator K.M. Shaji out of the Assembly.
The document before him was the Kerala High Court order disqualifying Shaji as a legislator.
“Oral observations from the Supreme Court cannot be considered a judgment. As the time of the stay for implementing the order by the High Court had expired and no further order was given by any of the courts, I can only go by the High Court order,” he said.
He was responding to queries about his statement carried in the media that he would not allow Mr Shaji to enter Assembly after the apex court had given an oral order that he could attend the Assembly session starting from November 27 during the pre-assembly session press neet on Friday.
“I was misquoted by the media. Even Mr Shaji was aware of the fact that an oral order was not enough as evident from the statement that he would approach the Supreme Court for an order.
Congress leader K.C. Joseph was misled by the media reports which misquoted me, said Mr Sreeramakrishnan while the statement made by the former that the Speaker was speaking in a language similar to CPM State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was brought to his notice.
The Supreme Court on Thursday had declined to have an urgent hearing in the plea by Shaji challenging his disqualification by the Kerala High Court for breach of the election code of conduct under the Representation of the People Act, for making communal overtures during his election campaign.
He was disqualified from contesting elections for six years. Mr Shaji won from Azhikode constituency in Kannur district in a closely contested election by a margin of 2,287 votes in the assembly elections held in May 2016 against M.V. Nikesh Kumar of the CPM.
