The Supreme Court on Friday held that the “10 per cent strength” rule relied on by the NDA Government to deny Congress the post of leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha was not amenable to judicial review.
The rule is part of a ruling given by GV Mavalankar, the first Speaker of lok Sabha, who laid down that the leader of Opposition post would go to any political party that garnered 10 per cent strength in the House. Following this logic, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had recommended the Centre that since Congress has only 44 seats, short of 10 per cent (55 seats) of the House membership, there was no question of granting it the leader of Opposition post.
Armed with this information contained in a news report, advocate Ml Sharma approached the apex court in a PIl challenging the Mavalankar rule. He sought scrutiny of the Government’s decision to deny leader of Opposition post to Congress, which had the highest numerical strength among Opposition parties in the House.
The bench headed by Chief Justice RM lodha scorned at the petitioner for failing to raise a legal issue through the petition. “Under Article 32, we are not deciding on political issues. If ruling is given by Speaker in the chamber of the House, it is not amenable to judicial review.”
The Court asked whether the Mavalankar ruling was notified or part of any statute to which the answer was negative. The bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohington Nariman said, “Once you say Mavalankar ruling is not notified, can the legality of such ruling given by Speaker be amenable to judicial review.”