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Disqualification plea: Assembly speaker colluding with ruling BJP, allowing Kiran to continue: Congress
Training its guns at the speaker for “wrongfully” dismissing a petition seeking her disqualification from the membership of the state assembly under the anti-defection law, Congress leaders said the act demonstrated speaker’s participation in the ongoing illegality.
The Congress on Friday accused Haryana assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta of colluding with the ruling BJP in allowing Tosham MLA Kiran Choudhry to carry on as a legislator unlawfully. Choudhry who was elected on a Congress symbol in 2019 had switched sides to join the BJP last month.
Training its guns at the speaker for “wrongfully” dismissing a petition seeking her disqualification from the membership of the state assembly under the anti-defection law, Congress leaders said the act demonstrated speaker’s participation in the ongoing illegality. The Congress had filed a petition seeking Choudhry’s disqualification in terms of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. The petition said that as per section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule, a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he or she has voluntarily given up his or her membership of such political party.
The speaker on July 22 announced said that the petition has been dismissed on technical grounds as it did not comply with the stipulations mentioned in the Haryana Legislative Assembly (Disqualification of members on grounds of defection) Rules framed in accordance with the provisions of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution. Congress Legislature Party (CLP) deputy leader, Aftab Ahmed and chief whip, Bharat Bhushan Batra at a briefing on Friday claimed that the decision of speaker Gian Chand Gupta to dismiss the disqualification petition signified lack of knowledge, non-application of mind, and seems to be tinkering of the constitutional provisions.
‘Speaker has different yardsticks for such matters’
Ahmed alleged that the speaker’s decision has also exposed his discriminatory functioning and collusion with the ruling BJP. He has different yardsticks when dealing with such matters. “For instance, he took a mere two days to unseat Congress MLA, Pradeep Chaudhary on January 30, 2021, a Saturday and a non-working day, following his conviction by a court. His membership was, however, restored after the Himachal Pradesh high court stayed his conviction,” he said.
The Congress leader also pointed out that the speaker took cognisance of the resignation of Ranjit Singh, an independent MLA supporting the BJP government, after more than a month of his joining the BJP. “Ranjit Singh had joined the BJP to contest Lok Sabha polls. He should have been disqualified as per the anti-defection law. His continuation as a minister after resigning is also illegal,” Ahmed said.
Quoting a Supreme Court ruling of 2004, the Congress leaders said that rules cannot defeat substantive law. “Rules are there to subserve justice and not to defeat it. Speaker’s decision is against a Supreme Court judgment, is illegal and gross violation of the Constitution,” Batra said.
What did SC say in its landmark judgment
The SC in Dr Mahachandra Prasad Singh judgement of 2004 said that rules being in the domain of procedure are intended to facilitate the holding of inquiry and not to obstruct it by introduction of innumerable technicalities. “Being subordinate legislation, rules cannot make any provision which may have the effect of curtailing the content and scope of the substantive provision - the Tenth Schedule,” the SC said. The Congress leaders said that the objective behind having a signed and verified petition was to ensure that frivolous petitions making false allegations are not filed in order to cause harassment.
“It is not possible to give strict interpretation to rules 6 and 7 otherwise the very object of the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act by which Tenth Schedule was added would be defeated. A defaulting legislator, who has otherwise incurred the disqualification under paragraph 2, would be able to get away by taking the advantage of a slight error in the petition and thereby asking the chairman to dismiss the petition. The validity of the Rules can be sustained only if they are held to be directory in nature as otherwise, on strict interpretation, they would be rendered ultra vires,’’ the SC order said.
‘Went by rules while dismissing plea’
Responding to the allegations, assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta said that these were baseless and unjustified. “I went by the rules while dismissing the petition. Why can’t the Congress frame a valid petition? What are their legal experts doing? Seems they themselves are reluctant to push for Choudhry’s disqualification. It is absurd that they have accused me of colluding with the ruling party,” Gupta said.
Regarding allegations of adopting different yardsticks in dealing with such matters and Pradeep Chaudhary’s disqualification, the speaker said he had to unseat him as the court had convicted him and the order was conveyed to him by email. Gupta said that he was willing to know about the SC ruling referred to by the Congress leaders to press their case.
