No reason to doubt Speaker: Supreme Court dismisses plea for prompt decision on disqualification of rebel TMC MLAs

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking directions to the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly to promptly decide on applications filed in July seeking the disqualification of 10 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana saw no ground to doubt that the Speaker would decide the matter within a reasonable timeline.

CJI Kant expressed that it is hopeful that the Speaker will follow the timelines established in previous case laws when it comes to deciding on disqualification petitions.

Justice Bagchi added that it may not be appropriate for a court to set deadlines for the Speaker, when courts themselves often take time to decide on cases.

"Well, I think we should see the mirror before we give directions. There are so many statutes where the judiciary is required to complete proceedings within a time frame. We are gloriously in breach of those laws and then we direct the speaker," he remarked.

Representing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, an MLA of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC who filed the petition before the Supreme Court, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal pointed out that in this case, the disqualification applications have been pending before the West Bengal Speaker for nearly 3 months.

"Three months are going to expire on October 8. It is the same pattern. You first don't deal with the disqualification, go to the Election Commission and get an order. The same pattern. Please issue notice. Let's see what they say," he submitted.

He argued that delays in such sensitive election-related matters have become a pattern and that political havoc could ensue if the Court does not intervene.

"The point I'm making is, what the pattern is. The legislative party will associate itself, some members...the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai (Maharastra political crisis case/ Shiv Sena split-related case) says let the Election Commission go on and this will not be decided. If you do not synchronise these two, there will be political havoc," he said.

The Court, however, was not inclined to interfere in the matter and dismissed the plea.

"The disqualification petitions are stated to have been filed on July 8, 2026. It may be noted here that this Court.. has held that the constitutional power vested in the Speaker to decide a disqualification petition is expected to be exercised within a reasonable time, ordinarily three months. We have no reason to doubt that the Speaker will take a decision within a reasonable period of time as laid down by this court," the Court recorded in its order.

The Court was hearing a plea urging it to decide on whether ten MLAs - Ritabrata Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Arup Roy, Sandipan Saha, Akhruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh - should be disqualified for having contested on a TMC ticket, but for having later rebelled to form a rival TMC faction.

Alternatively, the plea called on the Court to direct the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker to decide on applications filed in July seeking the disqualification of these 10 rebel TMC MLAs within time-frames set by the Supreme Court in Kesham Meghachandra Singh vs. The Hon'ble Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly (2021).

The matter is tied to an internal split of the TMC. The split arose soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the West Bengal Assembly elections in May and formed the State government, replacing decades of TMC rule.

The TMC became the main opposition party. However, internal splits within the TMC led to several disputes, including one over which of two TMC factions is entitled to use the TMC's "flower and grass" symbol and who is the leader of the opposition.

Chattopadhyay had earlier been nominated by the party as its Leader of Opposition. The Assembly Speaker, however, instead recognised Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay, a rebel TMC MLA, as the Leader of Opposition, along with another rebel MLA as Chief Whip.

Chattopadhyay had challenged this before the Calcutta High Court, which recently rendered a split verdict. The dispute, therefore, is yet to be settled by the High Court.

In the meantime, he filed the present plea questioning why the Speaker is yet to decide on petitions to disqualify ten MLAs in the rival TMC camp.