'We Can't Fix Time Limits': Supreme Court On Plea Seeking Guidelines For Speakers To Decide Disqualifications Of Members

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned for two weeks a plea filed seeking guidelines to look into the practice of mala-fide delays on the part of the Speakers/Chairmen of both houses of the Parliament & State Legislative Assembly in deciding matters related to political defections.

A three-Judge Bench led by CJI, Justice Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy expressed its disinclination towards issuing directions for framing a legislation as the same is the prerogative of the Parliament.

"How can we make a legislation? It is after all the prerogative of the House. There's a separate Institution itself. We can't fix time and time limits. It is all matter of the Parliament which has to take into consideration these things" CJI Ramana said.

CJI Ramana said that similar opinion was expressed by him in his Karnataka Judgement in response to similar arguments that were advanced. While asking the petitioner Counsel to go through the judgement and 'see the law already decided', the Bench directed the matter to be listed after two weeks

"I've already expressed the same opinion in my Karnataka judgement. Please read it. The issue was raised in that case also and  if I remember, Senior Counsel Sibal had advanced very same arguments, and we had left it to Parliament and Legislature. Read the same and come back." CJI said.

"First read it, you must see the law already decided. Then we will see. List after two weeks" the Bench said.

During the hearing today, Adv Abhishek Jebaraj appeared for the petitioner, and informed the Court that the plea has been filed for guidelines, to decide defection cases in an urgent and time bound manner.

"This issue has been lamented to be a pervasive issue where speakers are sitting on disqualification petition for years, rendering the very objective of 10th Schedule incompetent." Mr Jebaraj said.

The present PIL filed by Ranjit Mukherjee through Advocate Srishti Agnihotri has sought guidelines or principles to be laid down, to be followed by the Speakers and Chairman of the Lower and Upper House of the Parliament respectively, and Speaker and Chairman of the State Legislative Assembly, to have a uniform process of decision making in cases of defections across India.

The plea has stated that the rampant practice of political defections, when unchecked due to such delays, shakes the confidence of voters and young leaders, and goes against the grain of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. These rampant and unchecked political defections for personal or political gain, hit at the root of Indian Democracy, and violate the fundamental rights of Indian Citizens, under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The plea has argued that according to the "Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on the Grounds of Defection) Rules, 1985" and "The Members of Rajya Sabha (Disqualification on the Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985", a time limit has been imposed on the Leaders to bring the defecting members to the notice of the Speaker whereas no such rules as to the time limit for deciding the said matter has been mentioned.

The plea has argued that none of the rules as to the decision making power in the respective houses provide limitation on the time taken for the decision by the speaker. This creates a situation where Speakers often use this discretionary power as a species of 'Pocket veto' and often lead to unwarranted delays in deciding matters of defection.

According to the petitioner, due to this loophole, defecting Legislators are not punished and the practice of defections is not curbed. Instead this lacuna in the rules gives a leeway to the defectors.

The petitioner has stated that there is an urgent necessity for laying down guidelines to govern the conduct of Speakers or presiding officers of Houses, and providing a time-frame within which they must act, if the provisions of the Tenth-Schedule are to be meaningfully implemented.

On a related note, a 3-judge bench judgment given by the Supreme Court in January 2021 had held that Speakers should decided disqualification petitions within a period of 3 months. This time line was set in the case Keisham Meghachandra Singh v The Hon'ble Speaker Manipur Legislative Assembly and others.