A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear today the cases related to rift in the Shiv Sena party, which led to the political changes in Maharashtra in June-July 2022.
A 5-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had on last Friday deferred the decision on the preliminary question whether to reconsider the decision in Nabam Rebia vs Deputy Speaker which held that a Speaker cannot decide disqualification petitions when a motion seeking his removal is pending. The bench said that the question of reference cannot be decided in isolation from facts and decided to hear the matter on merits from today.
Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha are the other members of the bench.
The following are the issues before the 5-judge bench.
A. Whether the notice of removal of the speaker restricts him from continuing the disqualification proceedings under Schedule X of the Indian Constitution as held by the Court in Nabam Rebia;
B. Whether a petition under Article 226 and Article 32 lies inviting a decision on a disqualification proceeding by the High Courts or the Supreme Court as the case may be;
C. Can a court hold that a member is deemed to be disqualified by virtue of his/her actions absent a decision by the Speaker?
D. What is the status of proceedings in the House during the pendency of disqualification petitions against the members?
E. If the decision of speaker that a member was incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule relates back to the date of the complaint, then what is the status of proceedings that took place during the pendency of the disqualification petition?
F. What is the impact of the removal of Para 3 of the Tenth Schedule? (which omitted "split" in a party as a defence against disqualification proceedings)
G. What is the scope of the power of the Speaker to determine the whip and leader of house of the legislative party?
H. What is the interplay with respect to the provisions of the Tenth Schedule?
I. Are intra-party questions amenable to judicial review? What is the scope of the same?
J. Power of the governor to invite a person to form the government and whether the same is amenable to judicial review?
H. What is the scope of the powers of Election Commission of India with respect to deter an ex parte split within a party.
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