THE SUPREME Court on Tuesday questioned the alleged delay on the part of the Telangana Assembly Speaker in deciding the disqualification petitions against nine Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who defected to the Congress, and wondered whether “in a democracy, this process should go on endlessly till the end of the term”.
“Every matter can’t be operation successful but patient dead… In a democracy, should this process go on endlessly till the end of the term? What happens to democratic principles then,” asked Justice B R Gavai, while presiding over a two-judge bench. The court issued a formal notice to the Speaker and other respondents.
The bench also, comprising Justice A G Masih, noted that when it heard the matter on February 10, it had asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for a respondent “as to whether the Speaker would express the timeline within which the matter would be decided so that we avoid passing orders”.
The matter was subsequently posted to February 20 “when Mr Rohatgi stated that he had instructions from the Secretary that no such statement could be made on behalf of the Speaker”, the bench pointed out.
It said, “Today… an objection is raised by A M Singhvi and Mr Rohatgi, ld. senior counsels, that there is no formal notice in the matter and therefore, the respondents could not file a reply. No doubt the objection is hypertechnical. However, we do not want any objection to be permitted to be raised at a subsequent point of time that the petitions were decided without following the principles of natural justice. We therefore issue a formal notice to the respondents.”
The bench was hearing two petitions — one pertaining to the defection of seven BRS MLAs to the Congress and the other in relation to the defection of three other BRS MLAs to the Congress.
The petitioners pointed out that the disqualification petitions had been pending for several months but nothing had happened so far.
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Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for the petitioners, opposed the request for more time saying it was only a delaying tactic.
Justice Gavai pointed out that in the case pertaining to Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLAs, the court had said that the Speaker must decide disqualification petitions within a “reasonable period” but did not stipulate what that period should be.
The bench said it will consider the matter and fixed March 25 for hearing it next.
As reported by PTI the bench said it deferred the hearing to February 10 and asked Rohatgi whether the Assembly Speaker would like to express the timeline within which he would decide the disqualification plea.
