Supreme Court asks Calcutta HC to urgently decide plea on disqualification of rebel TMC MLAs

The Supreme Court on Thursday urged the Calcutta High Court to decide expeditiously a plea flagging the West Bengal Assembly Speaker's delay in deciding the disqualification petitions against 10 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) members of legislative assembly (MLAs). [Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay v. Speaker]

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice to place the matter before a division bench for expeditious disposal. It ordered,

"It seems to us that the petitioner has to take recourse to the Calcutta High Court. We accordingly dispose of this petition at this stage with liberty to the petitioner to file an appropriate petition before the High Court. We request the Chief Justice of the High Court to list the matter before a Division Bench for urgent consideration and decide the matter expeditiously."

The Court was hearing a fresh plea filed by TMC MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay challenging the Speaker's delay.

Disqualification petitions were filed on July 8 this year against Ritabrata Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Arup Roy, Sandipan Saha, Akhruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh for their defection after contesting assembly elections on a TMC ticket. The move led to a split in the TMC after it lost elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The plea called on the Court to direct the Speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions within time-frames set by the Supreme Court in Kesham Meghachandra Singh vs. The Hon'ble Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly (2021).

In a previous plea filed by Chattopadhyay, the Court said that it had no reason to doubt the Speaker and expressed hope that he would follow the timelines established in previous case laws.

Today, counsel for Chattopadhyay pointed out that no decision has been taken on the petitions.

"The disqualification petition is of July. It is completely covered by the orders of this Court. Five months have already passed," he said.

Justice Bagchi replied,

"We quite understand. You cannot litigate to jump the queue."

Counsel then said,

"The only request is that a Division Bench of the High Court consider the matter so that it does not get caught in another round of intra-court appeals. We request an expeditious disposal. There is already an order of this Court concerning West Bengal."

He also pointed out that the Calcutta High Court is on vacation till November 12. The Court responded,

"We are aware. You cannot have all petitions coming here merely because we have passed an order in one."

The Court eventually directed expeditious disposal of the plea by the Calcutta High Court.

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.

In the meantime, he moved the Supreme Court questioning why the Speaker is yet to decide on petitions to disqualify ten MLAs in the rival TMC camp.