New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea by Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee seeking an expeditious decision by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on petitions seeking disqualification of 20 rebel party MPs who have aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the 20 MPs on Banerjee’s plea.
The top court refused to issue notice to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the secretary-general of the House after noting submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that he is there to represent them.
Another bench comprising Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe is already seized of another petition filed by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) faction which has challenged Birla’s decision to recognise the merger of the party’s MPs with the rival Shiv Sena faction headed by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.
The Trinamool MPs cited as respondents in Abhishek’s petition are Kakoli Ghosh, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, Prasun Banerjee, Rachana Banerjee, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, Partha Bhowmick, Arup Chakraborty, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Sayani Ghosh, Bapi Haldar, Md Abu Taher Khan, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Asit Kumar Mal, June Maliah, Mitali Bag, Khalilur Rahaman, Mala Roya, Sharmila Sarkar and Yusuf Pathan.
Apart from these MPs, the petition has arrayed Birla and secretary-general of the Lok Sabha as respondents No 1 and 2, respectively.
The petition has been filed by advocate-on-record Preetika Dwivedi and Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee is expected to argue the matter on behalf of the Diamond Harbour MP.
Although Abhishek’s legal team had requested that the contents of the petition not be disclosed at this stage, it is understood that the petitioner has sought a direction to the Speaker to take a time-bound decision on the disqualification proceedings moved against the MPs who had “defected” and “merged” with the NCPI.
According to the petition, the 20 MPs who had “merged” with the NCPI, which was till then an obscure Meghalaya-based political party, had invited disqualification under the anti-defection law of the Constitution’s 10th Schedule.
It was complained that Abhishek had written a letter to Birla on July 27, requesting him to take an expeditious decision on the disqualification application.
Abhishek subsequently met Birla on August 12 and requested him to take an early decision.
However, Birla has failed to take any concrete steps in deciding the disqualification application.
