Supreme Court questions rationality of Maharashtra govt suspending 12 BJP MLAs beyond an Assembly session

Supreme Court of India. File Pic

The Supreme Court on Monday heard the writ petitions filed by 12 BJP MLAs challenging the resolution passed by the Maharashtra Assembly in July to suspend them for a period of 1 year for alleged misconduct in the house.

As per a report in Live Law, a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar posed questions to Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for the State of Maharashtra, regarding the rationality of suspension extending beyond the period of the session.

"When you say that action has to be rational, there should be some purpose of suspension and the purpose is with regards to the session. It should not travel beyond that session. Anything other than this would be irrational. The real issue is about the rationality of the decision and the same should be for some purpose. There should be some overwhelming reason. Your decision of 1 year is irrational because of the deprivation of the constituency being unrepresented for more than 6 months. We are talking about the spirit of Parliamentary law now. It is the interpretation of the Constitution in the manner it ought to be dealt," remarked Justice Khanwilkar.

"Another thing, the Election Commission also got the role. Where a vacancy is there, elections have to be conducted. In case of suspension, there will not be an election but if a person is expelled then election will be conducted. Another is danger to the democracy. Suppose there is a slender lead of the majority, and 15/20 people are suspended, what would be the fate of democracy?" Justice CT Ravikumar added.

On January 11, 2022, the bench had expressed an inclination to interfere with the resolution passed on July 5, 2021, by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to suspend 12 BJP MLAs for one year for alleged misbehaviour, as the term of suspension was beyond the permissible limits.