MVA crisis throws dy speaker’s role into sharp relief

The rebel faction served a no-trust motion against Zirwal on June 22, soon after Shiv Sena’s newly-appointed legislature party leader initiated disqualification proceedings

Mumbai: The Eknath Shinde-led rebel Shiv Sena faction on Monday approached the Supreme Court to challenge deputy speaker of Maharashtra assembly Narhari Zirwal’s authority to decide on Shiv Sena’s plea to disqualify 16 MLAs for anti-party activities.

Narhari Zirwal, Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and NCP member during the NCP party meeting at YB Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai on Thursday (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The rebel faction served a no-trust motion against Zirwal on June 22, soon after Shiv Sena’s newly-appointed legislature party leader initiated disqualification proceedings against the 16 legislators, including Shinde, currently camped in Guwahati. Zirwal had asked the rebel legislators to respond to their disqualification notice by Monday.

In a political crisis such as the one currently facing the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government — where a split in a political party has called the majority of the government into question — the speaker and deputy speaker’s role assumes significance.

Congress MLA Nana Patole was the speaker of the House till he resigned from the post in February 2021, following which Zirwal, who was the deputy speaker, took on his role. In the normal course of affairs, Zirwal has the authority to take a decision on the split in Sena as well as the disqualification of rebel MLAs. However, the issue of whether he can take a decision when a no-trust motion against him is pending will now be adjudicated upon by the Supreme Court.

Speaker’s powers

The speaker is elected by the members of the legislative assembly to preside over the proceedings of the lower house of state legislature. He is usually from the ruling party or, in this case, its allies.

Apart from supervising routine business of the assembly when the session is in progress, he is also the deciding authority in the case of a split in any party in power.

In the current context, the speaker or the deputy speaker (who officiates in the absence of the speaker) would give a ruling on whether the rebel MLAs could be disqualified as the Sena has demanded, under provisions of the Anti-Defection law.

The question then arises: can the judiciary intervene in his adjudication?

According to former Maharashtra assembly speaker Arun Gujarathi, it can, but the real question is, when.

“The issue of defection comes under Tenth Schedule of the Constitution under which the court can intervene, subject to certain aspects. What would become a matter of discussion is: Should the court intervene before the speaker has conducted the proceedings and given his ruling or after that? In any case, the ruling of the Speaker (on defection) is most likely to be challenged in the court by the aggrieved party,” Gujarathi said.

A deputy speaker’s powers

A deputy speaker is also elected by members of the assembly. Under Article 180 of the Constitution, the person occupying this post has the same power as a speaker if the latter’s position is vacant. This includes not just presiding over the legislative proceedings, but decisions related to disqualification of the members of the House.

Previous instances

The speaker’s decision came into play in a previous instance of a split within the Shiv Sena and on another time, in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

In 1991, the then speaker Madhukarrao Chaudhary has recognised a split in the Sena caused by Chhagan Bhujbal (who is now with the NCP). In 2002, Gujarathi disqualified six NCP MLAs who had signed a letter to the Governor stating that they were withdrawing support from the then Congress-NCP government.

Zirwal’s authority questioned

Last week, after a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde rebelled against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the MVA coalition government, the party replaced Shinde as group leader on the floor of the assembly with Sewree MLA Ajay Chaudhary. Zirwal recognised this change.

The party petitioned the deputy speaker to disqualify Shinde and 15 other MLAs and invoked provisions of the anti-defection law. The rebel group does not want Zirwal to take a decision on both issues. As such, they have moved a no trust motion against Zirwal, an NCP MLA, to remove him from the post. They have approached the apex court for the same.

A troublesome decision

In the power-sharing agreement between the three parties, Shiv Sena got chief minister’s post, the NCP was given the post of the deputy chief minister while the Congress got the post of the speaker.

Patole was elected speaker in 2019. However, in 2021, the Congress decided to appoint him as the state unit chief. A Speaker is expected to be non-partisan and hence cannot take part in political activities of his party. Patole resigned from the post though allies NCP and Sena were strongly against this. Since then the post has remained vacant.

The post has remained unoccupied as the MVA and the Governor have been locked in a tussle over this. As head of the state, it is up to the Governor to notify the date for the speaker’s election.