SC rejects suggestion to decide disqualification proceedings against Shinde camp

The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected the suggestion of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena to decide the disqualification proceedings pending against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and MLAs belonging to his camp saying it cannot assume the role of the Speaker as doing so will have serious ramificationsThe Thackeray faction had on Tuesday insisted that the court decide the disqualification proceedings as that was the only way to uphold the democratic spirit of the ConstitutionRight or wrong this is the system we have assumed as We the People Can a court try to breach this system Should the court enter into that area This is an area which is worrying us the court observed on WednesdayA fivejudge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud which was hearing a batch of pleas related to the June 2022 Maharashtra political crisis told senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing the Uddhav Thackerayled faction that ultimately it is the Speaker of the House who has to decide whether the rebellion by the Shinde bloc attracted the provisions of the antidisqualification lawYou are saying whatever has to be done has to be done at the behest of the party Your argument is that they Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde camp have acted contrary to the interest of the party They have appointed their own whip and leader of the party and their behavior and conduct invited disqualification but all of this leads us to one area that it is the Speaker of the House who is to decide whether there is any disqualification or not Thats an area we are unable to breach the court saidThe fivejudge bench also comprising Justices MR Shah Krishna Murari Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha said it understood the arguments of Sibal that in parliamentary democracy the political party is supremeSo far so good Its a very significant point you Sibal have made that they Shinde faction are elected representatives of Shiv Sena party and their behavior must be dictated by the party Now the question is should the court enter into the area of Speaker and if it assumes the role of Speaker then it will have very serious ramificationRight or wrong this is the system we have assumed as We the People Now will the court try and breach this system that is worrying us it saidSibal assisted by advocate Amit Anand Tiwari said this court has held that illegality cannot be allowed to be continued even for a day He said all these acts by Shinde camp were perpetuated by two orders of this court dated June 27 2022 by which this court kept in abeyance their disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker and of June 29 2022 by which the court refused to stay the direction of the Maharashtra governor to the 31monthold Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government to take a floor test in the assembly to prove its majorityHe submitted the top court should be worried because if this becomes a precedent it can happen in other cases tooAlso read Supreme Court refuses to stay EC order on Shiv Sena name and symbolThe bench said if such a situation arises because of a judicial order then it is a duty of the court to rectify that situation Now assuming that if we do so and place ourselves in a situation before June 27 2022 then we would have said that let the Speaker decide and your argument would have been till the Speaker decided their disqualification there should not be a trust voteIt would be very difficult to retrace our steps back in this scenario as the question would arise which Speaker or that Speaker the bench saidSibal said this was exactly what was done in the 2016 Nabam Rebia case where the court set the clock back and ordered status quo ante by restoring the Arunachal Pradesh governmentThe bench said Mr Sibal you want Nabam Rebia judgement to be followed when it suits you and you dont want it when it does not suit you Today we have a Speaker in a democratically elected house and after that can we now say that let the then deputy speaker take a call on disqualification Sorry it will be very difficult to retrace our steps backSibal submitted all these developments took place after the court order which allowed the status quo to be changedThe bench said those two orders were passed after hearing arguments from both the sides and that retracing the steps would mean invalidating the trust vote which took place subsequentlyHe said Parliament in its wisdom has used the term Political Party under the provisions of Para 21b of the Tenth Schedule wherein a member attracts disqualification for going against the wishes or directions of the political partyDemocracy only thrives when the institutions uphold the sanctity of the Constitution In this case the governor did not stop them Eknath Shinde faction or chose not to stop them He never asked them who you represent or which party you represent Unless Nabam Rebia is overruled these situations are bound to happen Governors are actively playing a role which is disturbing the polity of the state I leave this court to find answers to these issues he saidThe hearing remained inclusive and will continue on ThursdayOn Tuesday the top court had told the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena that the Speaker of a House functions like a tribunal in matters related to defection under the antidefection lawThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever