TNI Bureau: The Supreme Court declared BJD’s expelled Rajya Sabha MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra as Independent member after he approached the apex court seeking a direction to the BJD to send the expulsion order to the Rajya Sabha and him. The court also served a notice to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Secretary of Parliamentary Affairs and the Rajya Sabha Secretary General.

However, no date has been fixed for further hearing on this matter. A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice SS Nijjar, and Justice J. Chelameswar issued the notice to Naveen Patnaik after Pyari’s lawyer  Suresh Tripathy argued that the BJD is doing monopoly in the state and even the party did not inform anything to Rajya Sabha after expelling Pyari from the party. The court also pulled up BJD’s chief whip in Lok Sabha Bhartuhari Mahtab over the matter.

Pyari moved the apex court after being expelled on November 16, saying he had not yet been served with an official letter. “The CM must serve the expulsion letter to me. By not sending the expulsion order the BJD has made its position unclear in Rajya Sabha,” he said.