The fate of Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, who had disqualified nine rebel Congress MLAs including ex-Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, would be dependent on the judgement on pleas, challenging his action to disqualify the lawmakers, now Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said.
The caveat came in the order of the Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman who also refused to grant any interim relief to the rebel MLAs who had sought a stay on their disqualification and permission to participate in the Assembly session starting July 21 at Dehradun.
The motion to remove the Speaker was moved by then nine rebel Congress MLAs and BJP lawmakers on March 18 and a day after, the Speaker slapped them with disqualification notices. The Bench, which also made clear that it did not intend to interfere with the business of the Assembly, said that if the motion is taken up by the House and voted upon then its fate would be “subject to adjudication” of rebels’ pleas against the Nainital high court order upholding their disqualification by the Speaker.
“We are inclined to state that if the motion that was moved by the petitioners (rebel MLAs and BJP MLAs) for removal of the Speaker is taken up anytime in Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, the same shall be subject to final adjudication of the SLPs and all the issues raised in the petition including the jurisdictional issue are kept open,” it said.
The rebels, also including Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, filed a plea in their pending appeal, seeking a stay on the Speaker’s decision to disqualify them, by relying on the recent historic judgement in the Arunachal Pradesh case which has held that the Speaker, facing motion for removal, cannot disqualify lawmakers who are part of the motion. Referring to para 175 of the landmark verdict of the Supreme Court, re-installing the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh, senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the rebel MLAs, said that Article 179 (c) of the Constitution disentitles the Speaker against whom a resolution for removal is pending from disqualifying any member of the House.
No relief to disqualified U’khand MLAs
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined interim relief to nine disqualified Uttarkhand MLAs, who have sought a stay on their disqualification and permission to participate in the assembly session, commencing from July 21 in Dehradun. A Bench, however, said the notice, given by these MLAs and BJP lawmakers, will remain alive and would be subject to the final outcome of its judgement on the petition filed by MLAs. “We are inclined to state that if the motion that was moved by the petitioners (rebel MLAs) for removal of Speaker is taken up anytime in the Uttarakhand legislative assembly, the same shall be subject to final adjudication of the SLP and all the issues raised in the petition including the jurisdictional issue are kept open,” the court said.
The Bench, meanwhile, decided to prepone the hearing on the appeal filed by rebel MLAs, including Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, on July 28. The lawmakers, in their fresh plea in the pending appeal, referred to the recent Apex Court judgement in the Arunachal Pradesh case in support of their petition that they cannot be disqualified by the Speaker facing resolution for removal. The Nainital High Court had upheld the decision of the Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal to disqualify Champion and others including former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and two sets of appeal are pending in the Apex Court against the disqualification.