Facing the charge of violating the anti- defection law, BJP leader and Ex CM Babulal Marandi has suffered a jolt Tuesday when the Jharkhand High Court rejecting his plea.

The court heard arguments of both sides - Assembly and the petitioner and kept his judgement pending. Today,the judgement was made public.

Since the Speaker of the state Assembly has been hearing his case,Justice Rajesh Shankar observed that it can not be held valid to consider judicial proceedings and rejected his plea.

Also,on May 9,2022,Jharkhand assembly speaker Rabindranath Mahto had rejected Babulal Marandi’s request to cancel proceedings against him under the anti-defection law on the ground that the petitions were filed too late.

Marandi merged JVM (P) with the BJP on February 17, 2020 after suspending his two other party legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, who claimed that they represent the real JVM (P) and later merged the party with the Congress. 

The speaker Mahto who belongs to BJP’s rival and ruling JMM initially initiated anti-defection proceedings on his own, but after Marandi challenged his powers to suo moto initiate cases, a bunch of complaints were filed.

Notably,the speaker had considered complaints filed by former CPI(ML) legislator, Rajkumar Yadav and JMM legislator Bhushan Tirkey. Then,he heard arguments for complaints filed by Congress legislator Dipika Pandey and former JVM (P) legislator Pradeep Yadav.

On August 30,2023, Speaker Mahto had concluded anti-defection proceedings against Marandi and reserved the judgment. People aware of the matter said Marandi could lose his assembly membership and the ruling in this regard may come early.