Supreme Court admits plea on MP Congress MLAs who defected

The petition also complained against the assembly speaker for facilitating the MLAs to continue as ministers by delaying a decision on the disqualification petitions against 22 Congress MLAs, including the 12, pending since March 12.

The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a PIL by a Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA demanding that 12 defected Congress MLAs be restricted from continuing as ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-led government in the state.

A view of the Supreme Court(Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The petition also complained against the assembly speaker for facilitating the MLAs to continue as ministers by delaying a decision on the disqualification petitions against 22 Congress MLAs, including the 12, pending since March 12. These 22 Congress MLAs, who joined the BJP, led to the downfall of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde issued a notice on the PIL filed by Jabalpur North MLA Vinay Saxena, and sought responses from the speaker and Vidhan Sabha through its Principal Secretary by September 21. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, representing petitioners, said that the Speaker is bound by a recent decision of the apex court to decide disqualification petitions expeditiously.