Cuttack: The Orissa high court will consider afresh on Oct 29 the plea of BJD chief whip Pramila Mallik challenging the Odisha assembly speaker’s rejection of her petitions seeking disqualification of eight party MLAs over alleged cross-voting in the March Rajya Sabha elections. The state counsel will make submissions on that date.Justice Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo fixed the date for fresh admission after senior advocate Milan Kanungo, appearing for Mallik, informed the court on Oct 13 that his client intended to approach the speaker again by filing fresh disqualification petitions in the prescribed format under the Members of Odisha Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1987.Kanungo submitted that the petitioner would comply with Rules 6(6) and 6(7), and other relevant provisions, while approaching the speaker afresh. He argued that the procedural defects pointed out in the speaker’s June 19 notification rejecting the original petitions were curable.Recording the submission, Justice Sahoo observed: “In considered opinion of this Court, if the Petitioner wishes to approach the Authority, this Court need not have to go to any adjudicatory process be it maintainability of the Writ Petition or the merits of the Writ Petition in its present form.”With the consent of the parties, Justice Sahoo said: “The matter shall be listed for ‘Fresh Admission’ on 29th October, 2026.”The speaker, while rejecting Mallik’s petitions, had stressed the importance of adhering to the prescribed procedure for disqualification proceedings under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. The June 19 notification described the Speaker’s role in such matters as quasi-judicial and highlighted the serious consequences disqualification could have for an elected legislator and the electorate’s mandate.The development follows the reassignment of the case to Justice Sahoo after Justice R K Pattanaik recused himself from hearing the petitions. The chief justice assigned the matter to Justice Sahoo through an administrative order.Five of the eight petitions, concerning suspended BJD MLAs Arvind Mohapatra, Souvic Biswal, Sanatan Mahakud, Chakramani Kanhar and Subasini Jena, were taken up on Oct 13.The petitions had challenged the speaker’s decision to reject complaints against the eight legislators over alleged cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls held in March. The court has not examined the merits of the disqualification allegations in the present proceedings.