Parliament nudged to rethink absolute authority of presiding officers 

The Supreme Court wants Parliament to put a full stop to the unbridled power enjoyed by presiding officers of legislatures in deciding disqualification pleas against lawmakers. 

The SC on Tuesday observed that a Speaker also belongs to a political party and asked Parliament to think over setting up some sort of permanent body or independent mechanism to decide disqualification petitions. The Bench pointed out recent cases where Assembly Speakers came under scanner for their handling of disqualification petitions and said that MPs or MLAs should not be allowed to continue even for a day if they have incurred disqualification for issues like anti-defection.

In its Tuesday judgment in a case related to the role of the Manipur Assembly Speaker in not taking decision on disqualification pleas against a State Minister, the SC held that the Speaker can’t sit on a disqualification petition indefinitely and he must act within a reasonable time.

The court’s suggestion came in the wake of several cases where the Speakers were accused of deciding the disqualification pleas to suit their political preferences, disregarding norms and conventions, and using such pleas as a tool to arm-twist the lawmakers to protect or destablise State Governments.

Last year’s Karnataka political crisis was a case in point. The Assembly Speaker took weeks in deciding over the disqualification plea despite direction from courts.

The Speaker’s refusal to act on the disqualification pleas against the rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs created such a standoff that the Karnataka High Court in April 2018 issued a direction to the Speaker and fixed a deadline for deciding a plea. The Speaker took his own time and then matter went to the SC.

More often than not, the Speaker “sit over” such pleas, which remain pending for months — in some cases for years — even after MLAS/MLAs have clearly violated the provision of anti-defection law. By not acting on such pleas, Speakers allow MLAs to retain their voting power despite switching side. This mostly helps the ruling party in a State.

Such arbitrariness by the Speakers often facilitated midnight political coup in North-East States.

Suggesting for an independent mechanism to deal with disqualification pleas against lawmakers, the SC asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Minister Th Shyamkumar.

A Bench headed by Justice RF Nariman had granted liberty to Congress MLA Fajur Rahim and K Meghachandra to approach it again if the Assembly Speaker fails to take a decision within four weeks.

The BJP Minister had won the Assembly election on a Congress ticket and later joined the BJP. This led to filing of the disqualification plea.