Updated: June 23, 2020 9:13:25 pm
MLA at a press conference in Manipur. (Express photo)
Decision to disqualify Manipur speaker Y Khemchand Before the Rajya Sabha elections last week, three Congress MLAs and the state’s only TMC MLA have once again questioned the Speaker’s powers to disqualify them under the Constitution. With disqualification, BJP candidate Lisemba Sanjoba was elected to the Rajya Sabha with 28 votes. Congress got four votes less.
In 2017, the BJP formed the government in Manipur after seven MLAs who won on the Congress ticket. The Congress party asked the president to disqualify these seven, but the petitions were kept pending.
According to paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, an elected member of the House will be disqualified if they win an election as a candidate of one party and then join another. The power of this disqualification lies in the Speaker, who is usually a candidate of the ruling party. The anti-defection law, known as the Tenth Schedule, was added to the Constitution through the Fifty-second (Amendment) Act, 1985.
Editorial | Mess in Manipur
As no action was taken by the Speaker on the disqualification petitions, a writ petition was filed before the High Court of Manipur in Imphal to give directions for deciding the petition within a reasonable time. However, the court did not pass an order stating whether the High Court can direct a speaker to fix a disqualification petition within a certain time frame which is pending before the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. The parties were left with the option of moving the apex court or waiting for the outcome of the pending cases before it.
However, in 2018, the High Court ruled the case on merit, denying the Speaker’s initial objections. It argued that since the remedy under the Tenth Schedule is an option for the moving courts. It said that if the remedy is found to be ineffective due to intentional inaction or indecision on the part of the Deputy Commissioner, the court will have jurisdiction. However, the High Court did not pass the order again as the larger issue is pending before the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Manipur case reached the Supreme Court.
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In SA Sampat Kumar v. Kale Yadia and other cases relating to disqualification of Telangana MLA in 2016, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court asked to clarify the legal position on the powers of the speaker to disqualify a larger bench and To the extent such decisions of the speaker can be reviewed by the courts. However, this large bench has not yet been formed.
This January, a three-bench bench of Justices Rohinton F. Nariman, Anirudh Bose and V Ramasubramaniam, expressing their displeasure with the lack of speakers in deciding disqualification petitions, said the arguments disqualifying the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and Parliament Have to decide. Three months except in exceptional circumstances. It set the law for situations where disqualification times are mediated to manipulate floor tests.
The court also recommended that Parliament consider the powers of speakers citing incidents of partisanship. The court suggested independent tribunals to decide on disqualification. In the context of Manipur, this decision meant that Speaker Khemchand had to rule on disqualification within three months.
While delivering the verdict in the Manipur case, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Nariman also ruled that a 2016 reference to a larger bench by a two-judge bench was not required. It added, the two-judge bench was not made aware of the ruling five-judge bench in 2007, which answers the questions raised by the 2016 reference. Decisions of a large bench are precedent and binding on smaller benches.
Incidentally, the 2016 reference was made by a bench of Justices RK Aggarwal and Nariman.
But even three months after the Supreme Court order, the Speaker did not take any decision on disqualification. On 18 March, in an extraordinary move, the Supreme Court removed Manipur minister Thunaojam Shyamkumar Singh, against whom a disqualification petition was also pending before the speaker since 2017, from the state cabinet and he was called upon to enter the Legislative Assembly. From doing to the next order “.
On June 8, the Manipur High Court also passed similar orders in the case of seven Congress MLAs, relying on the SC’s decision. On the eve of the Rajya Sabha election, the Speaker finally gave a ruling on the petitions.
On June 17, Three-BJP MLAs resign And four ministers in N. Biren Singh’s government, all the NPP legislators closed the camps to support the Congress. Out of the seven MLAs who entered the BJP in 2017, four MLAs once again voted for the Congress. One of those four MLAs, Brijen Singh, moved the High Court a day before the election and obtained permission to vote. With the speaker disqualifying the other three and one TMC MLA, the Congress secured 24 votes, including four from the BJP.
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