Supreme Court removes Manipur Cabinet minister
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.
A bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman with 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 top court took the major 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.
Noting the “chequered history” of the case, the court in its order on Wednesday referred to its January 21,
2020, judgment pointing out that 13 disqualification petitions which were filed, starting from as early as April,
2017 have not yet been decided by the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly.
By its January 21, 2020, judgment, the court had given Manipur Assembly Speaker a month’s time to decide on 13 disqualification petitions pending before him.
However, court noted that till date nothing moved in the matter. 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 one month’s period given to him, did not take decision and had sought eight week’s more time – which was subsequently not pressed. Sibal on Wednesday 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 in the parliament and the State assemblies under the antidefection law.
“It is time that Parliament have a rethink on whether disqualification petitions ought to be entrusted to a Speaker as a quasi-judicial authority when such Speaker continues to belong to a particular political party either de jure or de facto”, a bench comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice V. Ramasubramanian had said in their January 21, 2020, judgment.