Supreme Court On Wednesday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, said that ‘If the constitution was made fun of, the Supreme Court will not remain silent.’ The Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker argued that ‘the court cannot order the president to decide on the disqualification of the MLAs who are allegedly defeating and going to another party.’ To this, the Supreme Court said, “We are not powerless in passing the order as the patron of the Constitution, especially when the tenth schedule related to the anti -defection law is being made fun of.”
Justice BR Gawai and Augustine George Christ also objected to the alleged statement made by Telangana Chief Minister A. Revant Reddy in the assembly that ‘no by -election will be held’. Justice Gawai said, ‘If this has been said in the House, then your Chief Minister is making fun of the tenth list. The tenth schedule of the Constitution is related to the provisions of disqualification based on the defection.
This hearing was being held on a petition related to the defection.
The bench was hearing the pleas related to the alleged delay in decision making by the Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker. During the hearing, the court asked the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly why he spent about 10 months to issue notice on the petitions related to the disqualification of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs who joined the Congress. On this, the Speaker argued that the court cannot order the Speaker to take a decision on the disqualification of the MLAs in the defection case.
The High Court order was challenged.
In a petition, three MLAs have challenged the Telangana High Court’s November 2024 order, while another petition has been filed in relation to the remaining seven MLAs. In November last year, a bench of the High Court had said that the Speaker should decide the disqualification petitions against the three MLAs within a reasonable time. This decision of the bench came on an appeal against a single judge’s order of September 9, 2024.
The single judge ordered the Telangana Legislative Assembly Secretary to present the petition seeking disqualification to the Chairman within four weeks for hearing. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked, “If the President does not take any action, will the courts of this country who have not only power as the patron of the Constitution, but also the responsibility, will it become powerless?”
Supreme Court surprised by the argument of Mukul Rohatgi
The Supreme Court also expressed surprise at the argument of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the Speaker, in which he said that the court could not issue an order to take a decision on disqualification petitions and could not set any time limit. Rohatgi argued that the pending disqualification petitions before the Speaker are beyond the judicial review. He said, ‘Judicial review is not allowed before the chairman is decided. The court may request the Speaker in this case.
Mukul Rohatgi said that the first application for disqualification was filed on 18 March 2024, after which two other applications were filed on April 2 and 8, respectively last year. The first petition in the Supreme Court was filed on 10 April last year. When the bench asked about the time taken to issue notice on disqualification petitions, the senior advocate said that the matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
Justice Gawai said that the single bench of the Supreme Court had requested to decide the program within just four weeks. The debate in the case will continue on 3 April. Senior advocate CA Sundaram, appearing on behalf of BRS leader P. Kaushik Reddy, said in his argument on 25 March that ‘The basic question is whether a court has this power, right to force a constitutional officer to work according to his constitutional mandate’.
The post, if your Chief Minister makes fun of the Constitution, will we be sitting on our hands? Why was the Supreme Court angry? First appeared on News India Live | Breaking India News, The Indian Headline, India Express News, Fast India News.
