Expeditiously decide plea on disqualification of rebel TMC MLAs: SC to Calcutta HC

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to constitute a division bench

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Calcutta high court to expeditiously decide the plea filed by a Trinamool Congress legislator seeking an urgent decision on the disqualification petitions pending before the West Bengal Speaker against 10 rebel members of the legislative assembly (MLAs).

The Supreme Court said, “We do not want litigants to jump the queue. We cannot have all petitions coming here just because we have passed orders in one matter.” (HT Photo)

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to constitute a division bench as it refused to entertain the petition filed by All India Trinamool Congress' (AITC) Mamata faction MLA Sohandeb Chattopadhyay.

“In our view, the appropriate recourse for the petitioner is to approach the Calcutta high court. We leave it to the petitioner to approach the high court. We request the chief justice of the Calcutta high court to list the matter before a division bench which shall decide the matter expeditiously,” the bench stated in its order.

Advocate Preetika Dwivedi, appearing for the petitioner, told the court that on Chattopadhyay’s petition, the top court had in September disposed of the matter while giving time till October 8 for the Speaker to decide the petitions filed under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Dwivedi said that the petitions were filed on July 8, and almost four months have passed, yet no decision has been taken.

The court said, “We do not want litigants to jump the queue. We cannot have all petitions coming here just because we have passed orders in one matter.”

Dwivedi referred to the 2020 decision of the top court in Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly, where the court held that the Speaker acts as a tribunal when deciding disqualification petitions and that such power must be exercised within a reasonable period. The judgment had set a three-month period for the Manipur Speaker to decide the pending disqualification pleas.

Dwivedi told the court that all that the petition seeks is implementation of the 2020 judgment. The bench said, “Even the high court will follow our judgment. You must understand our problem: if we entertain one state, all MLAs will start coming here.”

To avoid the rigmarole of first approaching a single judge and then a division bench, the court requested a division bench to take up the matter. The counsel then pointed out that the high court is on vacation till November 11. The bench said it was aware of the situation and requested the chief justice to urgently list the matter as and when it is filed.

It was on September 28 that the top court had said, “We have no reason to believe that the Speaker is fully cognisant of the principles laid down by this court and shall make all endeavours to take an appropriate decision within the said time period (three months).”

The petitioner had approached the court seeking expeditious disposal of disqualification petitions against rebel MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee, Arup Roy, Firhad Hakim, Sandipan Saha, Akhuruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh.

In the West Bengal elections this year, the BJP swept to power, winning 208 seats to the TMC’s 80. After that, 58 TMC legislators, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, formed a separate faction. The Election Commission is currently in the process of deciding which is the real TMC and can claim the party’s symbol, two flowers with a clump of grass.

In the meantime, the rebel faction has taken the name Democratic Trinamool Congress and has been given the envelope symbol. The other one, led by Mamata Banerjee, has taken the name Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, and has been assigned the football player symbol.

Apart from this, 20 of the erstwhile TMC’s 28 MPs have defected and joined the little-known Nationalist Citizen’s Party of India. Their disqualification petitions, moved by the TMC, are before the Lok Sabha Speaker, and TMC (now Mamata All India Trinamool Congress) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has moved a separate petition in the apex court seeking expeditious disposal of these pleas.