The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to 20 rebel Trinamool MPs who have defected from the party and merged with little-known NCPI to join the NDA.
The notice was issued on a petition by Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee. The TMC leader has approached the Supreme Court seeking an expeditious decision by Speaker Om Birla on the party’s petitions seeking disqualification of the 20 rebel MPs.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi heard the petition and issued notices.
The court had earlier indicated that it would also issue notice to the Speaker, but did not do so on the request of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Speaker in the Court.
Mehta said that he will appear on behalf of the Speaker. He added that he has instructions to say that the Speaker has issued notices on the disqualification petitions.
Responding to the SG’s submission, Justice Bagchi said, “It is not a question of issuing notices; it is a question of concluding the proceedings within a time frame.”
Banerjee, in his plea, has challenged the alleged delay in deciding the disqualification proceedings initiated against the MPs.
Reacting to the court proceedings, Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for Abhishek Banerjee, said it was a big win for the Trinamool and the court will soon give a date.
The dispute follows a rebellion within the TMC parliamentary party after 20 of its Lok Sabha MPs announced that they had joined or merged with the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI), a Tripura-based political outfit, and sought separate recognition in the House.
The rebel MPs have subsequently been treated as an NCPI group in Parliament and have participated in NDA meetings.
The TMC has maintained that the MPs were elected on its symbol and that their decision to align with another political formation amounts to voluntarily giving up membership of the party, attracting disqualification under the anti-defection law.
The rebel camp, however, has maintained that its move constitutes a valid merger. The petition names the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Secretary General as respondents, besides the 20 MPs against whom disqualification proceedings have been sought.
The MPs named in the petition are Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, Prasun Banerjee, Rachana Banerjee, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, Partha Bhowmick, Arup Chakraborty, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Sayani Ghosh, Bapi Halder, Md Abu Taher Khan, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Asit Kumar Mal, June Maliah, Mitali Bag, Khalilur Rahaman, Mala Roy, Sharmila Sarkar and Yusuf Pathan.
