SC removes turncoat Manipur minister Top court invokes plenary powers to bar minister T. Shyamkumar from entering Assembly

In a major decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday barred T. Shyamkumar — a Cabinet minister in BJP-led Manipur government — from entering the State Assembly and ordered that he would cease to be a minister forthwith as a consequence of the Speaker’s inordinate delay in deciding on his disqualification.

Mr Shyamkumar had won the Assembly polls in 2017 as a Congress candidate but later joined the

BJP government. And a plea for his disqualification, filed by a Congress leader, has been pending with the Speaker since April 2017. A bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat said that T. Shyamkumar is “restrained from entering the Legislative Assembly till further orders of this court. Needless to add, he will cease to be a minister of the Cabinet immediately.” The court passed the order taking recourse to its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. The

Supreme Court had on January 21 taken note of inordinate delays in deciding 13 pleas for disqualification of MLAs pending since April 2017 and had asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea for Mr Shyamkumar’s disqualification too.

The top court took the decision noting that despite it giving time to Manipur Assembly Speaker to take decision on the petitions seeking the disqualification of MLAs who had crossed the floor, the Speaker did not take any call. On Tuesday, the Speaker appealed to the court to defer the matter till March 28, saying that by then, there would definitely be a judgment on the disqualification applications.

The court noted that given the extraordinary facts in the present case, “we are constrained to use our powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India”. It also noted that solicitor-general Tushar Mehta sought time till March 28, assuring that decision on disqualification petitions would be taken by that time.

However, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner Keisham Meghachandra Singh, told the court that it (court) should have itself decided these cases as the Speaker, even after the one month’s period given to him, did not take decision.

Mr Sibal urged the court to take up the matter and decide it. The top court by its January 21, 2020, judgment had urged the parliament to take a call for setting up an independent tribunal to “swiftly and impartially” decide on the disqualification of lawmakers.