The Supreme Court on Tuesday said suspension of 12 BJP MLAs from Maharashtra Assembly in July for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer in chair, both inside and outside the Assembly, was “worse than expulsion”.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar expressed an inclination to interfere with the resolution passed by the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on July 5, last year.
Hearing a petition filed by suspended MLAs led by Ashish Shelar, the bench said that the suspension for one year was "worse than expulsion" as the constituency would remain unrepresented in the House.
A one-year suspension will amount to a punishment on the constituency of these elected representatives, the bench added.
Citing constitutional provisions, the bench said a constituency cannot go unrepresented for beyond six months.
Referring to relevant rules, the court also pointed out that the Assembly lacked power to suspend a member beyond 60 days. It said Article 190(4) of the Constitution mentioned a seat will be deemed to have become vacant if a member remains absent in the House without its permission for a period of 60 days.
Senior advocates Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the MLAs submitted that Rajya Sabha recently suspended 12 MPs for disorderly behaviour, and the suspension operated only for the duration of the session.
The bench did not agree to a contention by senior advocate C A Sundaram, representing the Maharashtra government, that the court cannot examine the quantum of punishment imposed by a Legislative Assembly.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 18.
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(Published 11 January 2022, 14:01 IST)
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