Supreme Court Seeks West Bengal Speaker's Decision On Plea To Disqualify Mukul Roy By Feb Second Week

The Supreme Court on Monday orally expressed that it expects the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly to decide on the disqualification petition moved against Trinamool Congress MLA Mukul Roy before the second week of February.

On June 17, a disqualification petition had been moved before the Speaker by BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against Mukul Roy on the grounds of defection under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. A Bench comprising former Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj of the Calcutta High Court vide order dated September 28 had also observed that it is a 'constitutional convention' to appoint a leader of the Opposition as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Bench had ruled that the issue pertaining to disqualification of TMC MLA Mukul Roy as Member of the Legislative Assembly is co-related with him being the Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts.

Background

A Bench comprising former Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj of the Calcutta High Court vide order dated September 28 had observed that the Supreme Court vide its earlier judgments has held that a period of three months from the date on which the petition is filed is the outer limit within which disqualification petitions filed before the Speaker must be decided. Reliance was placed on the Supreme Court judgment in Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. Hon'ble Speaker, Manipur in this regard. It was further noted that the three months period to decide on the disqualification petition by the Speaker had already expired on September 16.

"Maximum three months period has been prescribed by Hon'ble the Supreme Court for decision of any such petition, which has already expired. The objective and purpose of Tenth Schedule is to curb the evil of political defections motivated by lure of office, which endangers the foundation of our democracy. The disqualification takes places from the date when the act of defection took place. The constitutional authorities who have been conferred with various powers are in fact coupled with duties and responsibilities to maintain the constitutional values. In case they fail to discharge their duties within time, it will endanger the democratic set up", the Court had observed.

The Court had further opined that the power of the Speaker to adjudicate upon an application filed for disqualification of a member of Assembly is quasi-judicial in nature and is thus subject to judicial review. It was further held that the Speaker should have decided on the disqualification petition pending before him before he decided to appoint Mukul Roy as the PAC Chairman.

"The Speaker was required to decide the petition filed before him for disqualification of the respondent No. 2 having defected from BJP to AITC, as a result of which his membership to the Assembly itself was in doubt. In case the respondent No. 2 does not remain the Member of the Assembly, there was no question of he being even the Member of the Committee what to talk of its Chairman", the Court had noted further.

Pertinently, the Division Bench of the High Court had also remarked that the Speaker had failed to discharge his constitutional duty and had accordingly observed,

"In the case in hand as is evident from the facts on record there is failure on the part of the Speaker to discharge his constitutional duty coupled with established admitted constitutional conventions. Apparently he has worked on dictates. Finally, he was caught in the web knitted by him."

Case Title: The Secretary of Returning Officer, WB Legislative Assembly v. Ambika Roy and Ors