The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari challenging the West Bengal Assembly Speaker's decision not to disqualify Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Mukul Roy under the anti-defection law.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai gave liberty to Adhikari to approach the Calcutta High Court against the Speaker's decision.
The apex court also took note of the submission that Mukul Roy's term as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman is only for one year and asked the High Court to decide the matter within a month.
"Considering the tenure of Mukul Roy as Chairman of PAC is only for one year, we request the High Court to decide the writ petitions expeditiously and not later than a period of one month. All cases disposed of," said the bench in its order while disposing of the petitions.
Senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Adhikari, told the bench that the Speaker's decision is "wholly arbitrary".
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had approached the top court challenging the West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee's February 11 decision to reject his petition seeking disqualification of Mukul Roy for defection from BJP to TMC. Roy, a former BJP national vice-president, had defected to the ruling TMC in June 2021 after the Mamata Banerjee-led party emerged victoriously in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The Assembly Speaker and the Secretary of the Returning Officer of West Bengal Assembly had also filed plea in the apex court against the Calcutta High Court order.
The High Court had directed the Speaker to decide by October 7 last year the petition seeking Roy's disqualification for his defection from BJP to TMC. The order of the High Court had come on the plea moved by BJP MLA Ambika Roy challenging the appointment of TMC MLA Mukul Roy as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
On June 17, a disqualification petition had also been moved before the Speaker by BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against Mukul Roy on the grounds of defection.
By its September 28, 2021 order, the Calcutta High Court had observed that it is a constitutional convention to appoint a Leader of the Opposition as the Chairman of the PAC and ruled that the issue pertaining to disqualification of Roy as a Member of the Legislative Assembly is co-related with him being the Chairman of the PAC.
Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly had then moved the Supreme Court challenging the direction to decide on the disqualification petition against Roy.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor