SC Asks Parliament To Consider Whether Speakers Should Decide Defection Cases Under The Anti-Defection Law

With repeated delays by presiding officers across the country in acting on the petitions seeking disqualification on grounds of defection, the Supreme Court on Thursday called on Parliament to consider whether entrusting the task of adjudicating disqualification petitions to the Speaker or Chairman of legislatures under the Tenth Schedule has effectively served its purpose in combating political defections.

- PARMOD KUMAR

Delivering judgment on a set of petitions involving ten MLAs of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) who crossed over to the Congress in March-April 2024, a bench of the Chief Justice of India, Justice B.R. Gavai, and Justice Augustine George Masih directed the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly to decide all disqualification petitions pending against the MLAs within three months from the date of the verdict.

"If we do not issue any direction, it will amount to permitting the Speaker to repeat the widely criticised situation of 'operation successful, patient died'," Chief Justice Gavai remarked, authoring the Court's judgment.