Ramesh Kumar Datta, J.

1. The petitioner seeks the intervention of this Court by issuing a writ/order/direction in the nature of certiorari for quashing the order dated 26.3.2008 passed by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha in exercise of powers conferred by para-6 of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution by which he has disqualified the petitioner in terms of para-2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India and for further consequential reliefs and directions.

2. The petitioner was elected to the Rajya Sabha by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Bihar in 2004 as a candidate of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) which is a recognized political party and also the main opposition party in the Rajya Sabha. On 22.12.2005, the respondent No. 5, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, the Deputy Leader, BJP Parliamentary Group in the Rajya Sabha filed a petition under Rule 6 of the Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on the Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985 for disqualifying the petitioner under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India. It was stated in the said petition that in the last Assembly election to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha held in October-November, 2005, the petitioner for extraneous and motivated reasons decided to disassociate himself from the BJP and on 18th October, 2005 he sent a letter to the President of BJP, Bihar State resigning from the Membership of BJP and thus had voluntarily relinquished the membership of the party on whose ticket he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. It was asserted that the said letter was sent on the official letter head as a member of Parliament which not only bears his signature but the copy of the same was directed to be forwarded to all the print and electronic media. It was further alleged that thereafter the petitioner openly started campaigning against the BJP and other candidates of the National Democratic Alliance of which the BJP was a part and his tour programmes along with several other leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) were regularly arranged by the RJD (the principal opposing party contesting against the BJP/NDA in the Vidhan Sabha elections) and the details of the said programmes were duly published in various newspapers in Bihar by and under the authority of RJD, Bihar and the said campaign programmes showed that he had jointly campaigned by helicopter in various constituencies along with senior leaders of the RJD; photo copies of various newspapers clippings of 5.11.2005, 10.11.2005 and 11.11.2005 were annexed with the petition. It was alleged that the petitioner openly, actively and effectively campaigned against many BJP and its NDA ally JD (U) candidates in many other different constituencies. It was also alleged that during a public meeting in the Kudhni assembly constituency on 18.10.2005 the petitioner publicly declared that after resigning from BJP he would also relinquish the membership of Parliament and submit his resignation to the Chairman which remark was published in the newspaper dated 19.10.2005, photo copy of which was enclosed. It was thus alleged that apart from resignation, his conduct also conclusively established that the petitioner had voluntarily given up the membership of BJP which had elected him as member of Rajya Sabha. Upon receipt of the petition, the Chairman directed the copy of the same with its annexures to be forwarded to the petitioner and to the leader of the BJP and leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha requesting them to forward their comments in writing on the said petition within seven days of the receipt of the same in terms of Sub-rule (3) of Rule 7 of the Disqualification Rules.

3. In his reply to the above petition the petitioner disagreed with the charges made against him and stated that he had tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the party on 18.10.2005 in an agitated mental condition which was withdrawn by the letter dated 17.11.2005. The same was duly accepted by condoning the resignation bec