The Supreme Court slammed Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for suspending 12 Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs for one year in July last year and called the move “unconstitutional.”
The apex court said the crisis is dangerous for the democratic setup and will compromise the complete democratic values.
The bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar further mentioned that the term of suspension was beyond the permissible limits. The bench remarked that as per Constitutional provisions, a constituency cannot go unrepresented for a period beyond six months, and the suspension for one year was “worse than expulsion.”
“The House (Assembly) is governed by the Constitution and fundamental rights. If there is a statutory obligation in filling up a vacancy, at best within six months, anything beyond that is unconstitutional. Today it is 12, tomorrow it can be 120,” Justice Khanwilkar exclaimed
The apex court also refused to accept the argument of Senior Advocate C Aryama Sundaram, who was representing the Maharashtra government, that the Court cannot examine the quantum of punishment imposed by a legislative assembly.
The bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, further stated, “Even if we accept the argument that the House has the power to suspend, you cannot create a constitutional void or hiatus where a constituency remains unrepresented for a year. If a member is expelled, there is a vacancy that can be filled within six months. This is worse than expulsion, as the constituency has no remedy. Each constituency has equal power to be represented.”
The Court further noted that these are just its primary observations, and there would be a final decision soon. The bench gave the state government time to prepare its reply to the questions posed by the Court.
In July last year, just as the two-day Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Assembly commenced, 12 BJP MLAs were suspended for one year for allegedly heckling and using unparliamentary language against speaker in-chair Bhaskar Jadhav.
