Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has sent notices to 20 rebel MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC). These notices require the MPs to respond within seven days regarding disqualification petitions that have been filed by the party. The action comes amid ongoing tensions within the TMC, as the party seeks to address dissent among its members.
The development comes after TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee approached the Supreme Court, challenging the delay in deciding the pleas against the MPs. The party has sought their disqualification under the anti-defection provisions of the Constitution. Abhishek Banerjee has argued that their conduct attracts disqualification under the Tenth Schedule. The petition names the Lok Sabha Speaker and the House Secretary General as the principal respondents. The MPs facing the disqualification proceedings include Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, Prasun Banerjee, Rachana Banerjee, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, Partha Bhowmick, Arup Chakraborty, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Sayani Ghosh, Bapi Haldar, Md Abu Taher Khan, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Asit Kumar Mal, June Maliah, Mitali Bag, Khalilur Rahaman, Mala Roy, Sharmila Sarkar and Yusuf Pathan. Reacting to the Speaker’s decision, TMC MP Sagarika Ghose described the move as a significant breakthrough. Ghose accused the MPs of betraying the mandate on which they were elected and alleged that their move to join another party was in violation of the Constitution and the law. She also argued that the Tenth Schedule provides for disqualification in such circumstances and claimed that political parties, rather than individual MPs, can merge under its provisions. Notice dated Aug. 25th – exact date of hearing!” she wrote on X.
The 20 MPs are accused by the TMC of abandoning the party and subsequently joining the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). The TMC has maintained that the 20 MPs violated the anti-defection law by leaving the party and joining another political organisation. The 20 MPs have also been made parties to the case. She said the Speaker’s office had acted after nearly two months and issued notices to the 20 MPs following the Supreme Court proceedings. Earlier reporting noted: Defection case: Lok Sabha Secretariat issues notices to 20 rebel TMC MPs On the same day that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking an expeditious decision on disqualification petitions, and more than a month after he wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla urging him to disqualify 20 MPs who switched from the TMC to the Nationalist Congress Party of India, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued notices to the legislators, asking them to submit their replies within seven days. She pointed out that the party had filed 20 disqualification petitions on June 19 and then shared an image of the notice issued to the rebel MPs.
The TMC MP said the disqualification petitions had been filed in June and questioned why it had taken two months for the Speaker’s office to act. She further said the action came after Abhishek Banerjee moved the Supreme Court over the delay. Earlier reporting noted: “Speaker LS did nothing except give them better seats at our expense. [Solicitor General] SG Tushar Mehta in Court said the Speaker had issued notices.
Earlier reporting noted: Reacting to the development, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra alleged on X that there had been a cover-up regarding the timing of the notices issued by the LS Secretariat.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices on Tuesday while hearing Banerjee’s plea seeking directions for the Lok Sabha Speaker to decide the pending disqualification petitions within a fixed timeframe. The notices from the Speaker’s office come a day after the Supreme Court sought responses from the 20 MPs on Banerjee’s petition. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Secretary General of the Lok Sabha, told the Supreme Court that notices had already been issued to the 20 MPs on the disqualification petitions filed by the TMC under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
However, Justice Joymalya Bagchi made it clear that the issue before the court was not simply whether notices had been issued, but whether the proceedings would be completed within a reasonable timeframe.
