Shashwat Mishra, Mumbai Uncensored, 13th January 2022:
The Hon’ble Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed its displeasure and criticized the resolution passed by the Maharashtra assembly for suspending 12 BJP MLAs, the court observed that since the suspension cannot operate beyond six months owing to the constitutional bar, the said resolution is prima facie unconstitutional. The name of the case is [Ashish Shelar vs Maharashtra Legislative Assembly].
A full bench comprising Justices, AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravikumar presiding over the matter also expressed their disagreement over the argument from the Maharashtra Assembly that the house has absolute powers to frame its own rules and has the power to depart from it. Senior Advocate C. Aryama Sundaram representing the state assembly argued that the state assembly has the absolute power of making rules, to this Justice Maheshwari, remarked,
“Saying, you can do what you want means what? A seat can remain vacant for 60 days, and at the most 6 months, as an outer limit. Here we are talking about a constituency being represented in a parliamentary form of democracy? Is this not hitting the basic structure of the constitution when the 12 constituencies are unrepresented?”. While justice Khanwilkar said, “Now it is 12. Tomorrow it will be 120. It is a dangerous argument. Absolute power does not mean unbridled. This is a serious issue,”
Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appearing for one of the suspended legislators submitted that the apex court “has to safeguard the sanctity of these proceedings.” He further argued, “Streams of justice has to be ensured and this cannot happen unfairly, otherwise, every majority of members will rub against the minority. Else why have a rule book in the assembly?”
The bench further observed, “We will say that the decision is unconstitutional. House has authority to suspend you but not beyond 59 days. House is also governed by a constitution and fundamental rights. This is not punishing the member but punishing the constituency as a whole. In the facts of the present matter, we will say enough is enough in two pages,” As per the constitution the maximum limit for which an MLA can be absent from his seat is 60 days, after which the seat is deemed to be vacated.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next on January 18, 2022.
