NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs on a writ petition filed by the party’s general secretary and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee. He had sought directions from the court for an expeditious decision on the disqualification petitions pending before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
However, despite being arraigned as the first respondent in the petition, no notice was issued to Birla.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the matter. During the hearing, they were inclined to issue a notice to Birla as well, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stepped in and said he would appear on behalf of the Lok Sabha Speaker. The SG further said that he has instructions to say that Birla had issued notices on the disqualification petitions.
To this, Justice Bagchi said, “We are not to pass any order against a constitutional authority, but to ensure that it is done in a timely manner. That is the most important.”
Justice Bagchi also said that the question was not about issuing notices but “concluding the proceedings within a time frame”.
The 20 MPs named as respondents in Banerjee’s petition include Sayani Ghosh, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, Prasun Banerjee, Arup Chakraborty, Deepak Dev Adhikari and Yusuf Pathan, among others.
The petition has challenged a delay in making a decision on the disqualification of the 20 rebel MPs. These leaders won the Assembly elections earlier this year on a TMC ticket but later defected to the relatively unknown Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) soon after the results were announced in May. The rebel camp has sought recognition as a separate group in the Lok Sabha. In fact, in the recent Monsoon session, they were allotted separate seats in Lok Sabha during the proceedings.
Trinamool Congress has sought the rebel MPs’ disqualification under the anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule of the Constitution). Abhishek Banerjee had earlier submitted separate disqualification petitions before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and urged for their swift dismissal.
Besides the 20 rebel MPs and Birla, the TMC’s petition names the Lok Sabha Secretary General as another respondent.
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