New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday issued notice to Jharkhand independent legislator Stephen Marandi and Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari on a petition questioning Namdhari's order that Marandi was qualified to become a member of the assembly.

A bench of judges K.G. Balakrishnan and D.K. Jain issued the notice on a petition filed by former legislator Kamla Kant Prasad Sinha, contending that Marandi was disqualified as per the provisions of the amended anti-defection law.

Sinha contended that Namdhari's June 20 order that Marandi did not attract the disqualification was illegal. He said Marandi could not continue as an independent legislator after voluntarily resigning from the membership of his original party.

Marandi, who was earlier elected to the Rajya Sabha on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket, resigned from the upper house after winning the assembly election from the Dumka constituency.

He also became the chairperson of Public Accounts Committee of the Jharkhand assembly.

Assailing the speaker's order, Sinha said Namdhari did not properly understand the provisions of the anti-defection law, which "provides that a member of a house belonging to any political party shall be disqualified if he has voluntarily given up his membership of such political party".

Sinha sought a declaration that Marandi was disqualified under the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the constitution (relating to defections) and a consequent direction that the seat held by him had fallen vacant from Feb 27, 2005, the date on which he was declared elected to the assembly.