The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly on a petition stating that he cannot be allowed to be appointed as a minister in the Shivraj government pending disqualification petitions filed against the Congress MLAs joining the BJP.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramaniam asked the speaker to reply by September 21 on this petition filed by Congress MLA Vinay Saxena from Jabalpur North. It is worth mentioning that in the last March, 22 Congress MLAs resigned, due to which the Kamal Nath government fell.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, appearing for the petitioner MLA, told the bench that the pending disqualification petitions against 22 MLAs should be disposed of within a maximum period of three months as stated by the Supreme Court in a case related to the Manipur Legislative Assembly Was. He said that despite pending disqualification petitions, 12 of the 22 MLAs were appointed ministers in the Shivraj government on July 2.

The petition said that disqualification petitions were filed on March 12, but no order was passed so far despite so many months. The petition states that such a delay is to defeat the anti-party law.