The Supreme Court kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought responses to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.
The Supreme Court Monday rued the 'general practice' of speakers delaying decisions on pleas seeking disqualification of lawmakers and the subsequent arguments that courts should 'stay away,' while hoping that the West Bengal assembly speaker would decide on such a plea against Mukul Roy who defected to the Trinamool Congress from the Bharatiya Janata Party after the state polls.
The Pilot camp had moved the high court against the notices under which they face possible disqualification from the state assembly.
Earlier it said floor test is the only way to settle all issues that have entangled the politics of Maharashtra following a rebellion by Sena leader Eknath Shinde leading to a survival crisis of the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government.
Yuri Alemao, Altone D'costa and advocate Carlos Alvares Ferreira, the three Congress MLAs who didn't join the eight of their former party men in jumping ship speak up about their decisions and their motivations to stay with the 137-year-old Congress.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear at 5 pm the plea of Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu challenging the Maharashtra governor's direction to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government to take floor test in the assembly on Thursday.
Prima facie, sources feel that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the anti-defection law, has been abused.
Sibal also said the present dispensation wants an 'Opposition-mukt Bharat' not just a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'.
Sources stated that the move comes even as Trinamool Congress has attempted to stir a controversy over Dasgupta's candidature. BJP has fielded Swapan Dasgupta from Tarakeswar Assembly constituency in Hoogly district.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose Bharatiya Janata Party-backed government is facing attacks and legal challenges from a faction led by Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, has said that 'they are not doing anything illegal' and have followed all constitutional steps for the formation of new government in the state.
The hearing remained inconclusive on Monday and Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty said it will be concluded on Tuesday. The order is also likely to be pronounced on Tuesday.
Nothing turns on the hair-splitting argument that the Congress does not have 55 seats because that is not a legal requirement to be the single largest legislature party in Opposition in the Lok Sabha, says Venkatesh Nayak.
Seeking an interim stay on the high court order, Joshi's petition said it was the top court's duty to ensure that all constitutional authorities act within the 'Lakshman rekha' drawn for each one of them.
'When Uddhav Thackeray went in for surgery, he had presumed that Eknath Shinde would have looked after the Shiv Sena for him during this period.' 'He did not imagine that Shinde would use this period to backstab him.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the petitions filed by the Shiv Sena and its rebel MLAs raise many constitutional questions which require consideration by a larger bench.
Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi however failed to get any interim relief on his plea alleging that the high court cannot interdict the disqualification proceedings undertaken by him under 10th schedule of the Constitution.
Those who quit included deputy chief minister Y JoyKumar Singh.
Ahead of the July 19 presidential election, the Election Commission has made it clear that political parties cannot issue any direction or whip to members to vote or not as it would tantamount to an offence of undue influence
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said his party wants a floor test in the state assembly and is 'begging' for it, but the Governor is not convening the House and 'delaying' the trust vote allegedly at the behest of the central government.
The high court dismissed the petition of Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification and the Supreme Court refusing to give any relief to them.
The 19 MLAs were sent notices Tuesday by the Speaker after the Congress complained that they had defied a party whip to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday disqualified Telugu Desam Party MP M Jagannath, who defied a party whip and voted for the Congress-led United Progressive government in a trust vote He was diusqualified according to the Anti-Defection Law under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, a Lok Sabha release said.
For that matter, almost every main political party in the House had turncoats in the crucial trust vote that the government won comfortably. They include Congress, Janata Dal-United, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, National Loktantrik Party and NPF. The Lok Sabha Secretariat had already served the show cause notices on the concerned MPs, asking why they should not be expelled for defying the whip.
Those disqualified by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee are Bhalchandra Yadav (Khalilabad), Ramakant Yadav (Azamgarh) and Mohammad Shahid Akhlaque and their seats in the House have been declared vacant. Petitions for their disqualification were filed by the BSP under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) on the ground that the three MPs had voluntarily given up the membership of their party and joined the Samajwadi Party.
Disqualifying lawmakers of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for defying whip during the trust vote on July 22 will be the trickiest task for Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee will soon decide the fate of the 19 Members of Parliament who defied their party whips during the trust vote on July 22. These MPs can be disqualified under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
The division bench of the court, hearing the dissident MLAs petition against the Speaker's notices, adjourned Friday evening. It fixed the next hearing for 10 am on Monday. The counsel for the Speaker assured the court that no order shall be passed on the notice till 5.30 pm on Tuesday.
Rajasthan Assembly Speaker C P Joshi confirmed that disqualification notices have been sent out Tuesday on the basis of the complaint made by the party. The dissidents have to reply by Friday.
The apex court, in a plethora of verdicts, has given varying judicial opinions on Speakers' powers ranging from refusing to intervene in the matter to assuming the role of the Speaker itself and going to the extent of disqualifying lawmakers under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.
'Across the political spectrum, especially from the side of the NDA itself, there is complete disillusionment (with the way the BJP is treating its allies).' 'This leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.'
Reacting to the development, Naidu said such crises were not new to the party.
Fifteen rebel members of Legislative Assembly belonging to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress and main opposition Telugu Desam Party were today disqualified for voting in favour of a no-confidence motion moved by TRS against the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in March this year.
Rebia seeks review of a portion of the judgement dealing with the power of the speaker.
The apex court had questioned the poll panel's notification and said that NOTA was meant to be exercised by individual voters in direct polls.
With Aam Aadmi Party crying foul on imposition of President's rule in Delhi, the Supreme Court on Friday asked its political rivals, BJP and Congress, to clarify their position on keeping the Assembly under suspended animation for a year.
The MLAs have been disqualified with effect from Monday, under the 1986 Tamil Nadu Assembly Members Party Defection Law.
The court struck down the portion of the Speaker's order by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka assembly.
Bharatiya Janata Party member Subramanian Swamy on Friday introduced in the Rajya Sabha a private member bill which seeks "deterrent punishment", including the death penalty, for slaughter of cow and issues related to that.
The apex court was deciding on the question whether an expelled member could be disqualified under the law, if he or she defies party whip.
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