The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly to decide on petitions seeking the disqualification of 10 MLAs, who jumped ship from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to the Congress in 2023, under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution in three months.
The defections took place after the state elections in 2023, and one of the MLAs had even fought the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on a Congress ticket.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chauhan set aside a November 22 order of a division bench of the Telangana High Court, which nullified the single bench's directive to the Speaker to fix a schedule to decide on the pleas, observing that it cannot permit a situation of "operation successful but patient dead".
"We have referred to various parliamentary speeches, including those by Rajesh Pilot and Devendra Nath Munshi, to emphasise that entrusting disqualification proceedings to the speaker were aimed at avoiding delays that may occur before courts," the CJI said
while reading out the judgement.
It said the division bench had erred in interfering with the single judge's order that merely called for a time-bound disposal of the defection petitions without setting a specific deadline. "Any MLA shall not be allowed to protract the proceeding. If done so, then the Speaker shall draw adverse inferences," the court said.
The bench also said that political defections have been a matter of national discourse and have the potential to disrupt democracy if not restricted. Besides, it observed that the Speaker, while acting as a Tribunal under the Tenth Schedule, is not immune from judicial review
"Judicial review power of the Supreme Court and High Courts is in a limited area, but for the purposes of judicial review under Articles 136 and 226/227, Speaker/Chairman, as a Tribunal, is amenable to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and High Court," it said.
Parliament should consider reviewing the present mechanism for disqualification of MLAs under the Tenth Schedule, or the anti-defection law, the court said, adding that assembly speakers tend to routinely delay such proceedings against defectors who pose danger to democracy.
The Congress thumped the BRS in the 2023 elections. The national party won 64 of 119 assembly seats. The BRS, led by K Chandrashekar Rao which swept 88 in the previous elections, secured just 39 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party and Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM got eight and seven, respectively.
The defections triggered a political row and the High Court was approached after the Speaker was accused of inaction in the matter. The Speaker, however, argued the High Court lacked jurisdiction to issue such orders.
Those seeking disqualification said a delay on the petitions would allow the ruling party time to persuade more lawmakers from rival parties to jump ship.
