Ranchi, Sep 8 (IANS) Three independent Jharkhand legislators Friday moved the Supreme Court against a notice served on them by Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari asking why they should not be disqualified under the anti-defection law.

The case will come up for hearing Monday, they told IANS here.

Namdhari had Thursday served notice on Stephen Marandi, Enos Ekka and Kamlesh Singh and asked them to reply by Sep 11, three days before Chief Minister Arjun Munda seeks a trust vote in the legislative assembly on Sep 14.

Ekka and Kamlesh Singh had withdrawn support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The speaker is planning to pass judgment even if the legislators do not turn up to reply, sources said.

"The speaker served the notice to tame us. The notices were served so Munda could win the trust vote on the floor of the house. The Munda government is in a minority and he should step down in the interests of the people of the state," Marandi said.

"We have filed the petition in the Supreme Court to prevent the speaker from disqualifying us before the trust vote," he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had petitioned the speaker to disqualify the three on grounds that they had violated the constitution.

It stated that Kamlesh Singh belonged to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Enos Ekka to the Jharkhand Party (JP). Both supported the NDA after last year's assembly elections, violating their respective party whips.

And Marandi has been charged with floating the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) despite the fact that he won the election as an independent candidate.

The NDA government is in a crisis after four rebel ministers -- Madhu Koda, Enos Ekka, Harinarayan Rai and Kamlesh Singh -- resigned Tuesday and withdrew support to the government.

In the 82-member house, the Munda government now enjoys the support of 39 legislators, including one nominated member.