Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Maharashtra Speaker Election Issue Next Week

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear next week plea filed by BJP MLA Girish Mahajan challenging Bombay High Court's order dismissing his PIL against change in Maharashtra Speaker Election Rules.

A Bench Comprising CJI NV Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari allowed urgent listing of the matter after it was mentioned by Senior Advocate AM Singhvi on behalf of the State of Maharashtra.

Mr Singhvi informed the Court the issue in case related to whether the Chief Minister can recommend fixing of dates in election of a speaker. He added that the Governor says he won't fix a date and the Assembly is therefore headless. As the Governor was saying that the issue was sub-judice before the Supreme Court, Singhvi sought for an urgent hearing of the matter.

In his petition, Mahajan states that the amendments of the Rules are "arbitrary and unconstitutional," adding that the "election process has been reduced to a selection process."

By the amendment to Rule 6 and Rule 7 of the MLA Rules the "secret ballot" system for the election of the speaker or deputy speaker of assembly has been replaced with an "open" voting system.

The division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justices MS Karnik had taken the petitioners to task before dismissing the petitions. The court had also asked Mahajan and another petitioner to forfeit Rs. 10 and Rs 2 lakh submitted as a precondition for the petition to be heard.

The CJ had observed that the petitioners failed to justify their locus or how the appointment of Speaker was a matter of public interest. The Chief remarked that the petitioners miserably failed to show what exact part of the amendment is unconstitutional based on generic statements in the pleadings.

Regarding the contention that the Speaker would be elected based on the recommendation of the CM, the CJ had pointed out that the CM would merely recommend the date for election and not recommend the speaker's name.

The present SLP raises the following question of law

* Does the Governor of State have discretionary powers to fix the date for election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of State Legislative Assembly is concerned?

* Whether the Chief Minister of a state can exercise any power under the Constitution of India without aid and advice of Council of Ministers?

* Whether the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly can be selected by the Chief Minister of state?

According to the petition filed though advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh as per the old rules there was a process of conducting the election of the speaker through the Secret Ballot system and the new rules change this to vote by voice or raising hands.

"There is a ambiguity as the entire procedure of election by secret ballot system has been deleted from the old rules and no other procedure has been defined. Hence, it gives the entire power of recommending the name of the speaker and deciding the procedure for election of the speaker with the Chief Minister, which raises questions regarding the impartiality of the post of the speaker."

Mahajan in his petition further claimed that as per the old rules the deputy Speaker, conducting an election was necessary and the Speaker had a power limited to fixing a date for conducting the said election. The provision of Rule 6 so far as may apply to such election.

"As per the new rules, the Deputy Speaker shall be selected instead of being elected and the speaker will be deciding a date for such selection. The Provisions of rule 6 so far as may be apply to such selection instead of such election," the plea adds.

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