Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Suvendu Adhikari's Plea Challenging Speaker's Decision To Not Disqualify Mukul Roy, Allows Him To Approach HC

On June 8, 2022, speaker Biman Banerjee had refused to disqualify Roy for alleged defection to TMC from BJP.

On Friday, the Court heard two petitions moved by the Adhikari, one against the Speaker’s decision and the other, against a Calcutta High Court order dated April 11, 2022, which had set aside the first decision taken by the Speaker in February 2022 to dismiss Adhikari’s petition seeking Roy’s disqualification. The High Court had remitted the matter back to the Speaker for fresh consideration, following which the subsequent decision dated June 8, 2022 was taken by the Speaker.

While hearing the plea challenging the Speaker’s decision, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjay Kumar questioned Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Adhikari, why the Calcutta High Court was “bypassed”. The Court further recollected that Adhikari had approached the Apex Court earlier and was asked to move the High Court.

“Mr. Vaidyanathan sir, first of all, you tell us. In an earlier occasion also, you attempted to challenge the Speaker's order here in the Supreme Court with a detailed order, thereafter you withdrew it, then you went to High Court and it is pending. And now you will come against the Speaker's order pursuant to the order later on passed. Why will you not go to the High Court, sir?”.

The senior counsel then chose to withdraw the petition.

Senior Advocate Gopal Shankaranarayanan, also appearing for Adhikari, submitted that the petition was filed in the Supreme Court as an earlier petition, in which the Supreme Court had directed the Speaker to take a decision, is still pending. 

The bench allowed the petitions to be withdrawn with liberty to move the High Court.

Case Title: Suvendu Adhikari vs Speaker, West Bengal Legislative Assembly | SLP Diary No. 39707/2022

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