THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The speaker issued notice to P J Joseph and Mons Joseph for violating whip in the no-confidence motion. The notice was sent on the complaint of Roshy Augustine MLA seeking disqualification of the two.

Roshy Augustine lodged the complaint to the speaker as the chief whip of Kerala Congress (M). P J Joseph and Mons Joseph had voted against the government against party’s decision to abstain from the no-confidence motion. Roshy Augustine complained to the Speaker asserting that this was violation of whip and so both should be disqualified.

The speaker in the notice sought an immediate explanation if there is any reason not to disqualify them. This has nothing to do with change of front and if action is taken the MLAs will be disqualified.

Both factions of the Kerala Congress had approached the speaker with complaint on whip violation. However, the first complaint obtained was that of Roshy Augustine and following that the speaker decided to take further steps. The complaint of Joseph faction is kept in the file and steps on it will be decided later.