Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Thursday stayed further proceedings initiated suo motu by Speaker Ravindranath Mahto against former JVM-P chief Babulal Marandi for his alleged defection to BJP. The court has fixed January 13, 2021, as the next date of hearing.
Marandi challenged the Speaker’s notice issued to him on November 2. The Speaker had on his own taken cognizance of Marandi “joining” BJP and issued a notice for defection under the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha Sadasya (Dal Parivartan ke Aadhar par Nirharta) Rules, 2006 (3rd Edition, 2019). The vires of the rules have also been challenged by Marandi. Advocate general Rajiv Ranjan represented the Speaker and the government during the hearing.
Arguing before a division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, Marandi’s counsel and senior advocate R N Sahay said the Speaker is not empowered to initiate proceedings against any member of the legislative assembly on his own. The Speaker derives powers from the rules which are an offshoot of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution and lay the guidelines in case of defection by a member of an assembly.
After hearing the matter from both sides, the bench ordered the Speaker to keep the proceedings in abeyance till the next date of hearing. The court also directed the Speaker and the state government to file a counter affidavit in the matter.
Pleading before the court, Sahay said the 10th Schedule Constitution mentions the word “referred” and matters of defection can only be “referred” before a Speaker to initiate further action by either a member of the assembly or by any other person aggrieved by such a defection.
“There is no reference of initiation of a suo motu proceeding in the matter by the Speaker in the Constitution. In absence of such liberty, the inclusion of a provision in the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha Sadasya (Dal Parivartan ke Aadhar par Nirharta) Rules, 2006 (3rd Edition, 2019) for the Speaker to initiate proceedings on his own is beyond the scope and spirit of the Constitution,” the senior advocate argued.
Sahay added, “Marandi being the chief of the JVM-P had merged with BJP in February 2020. This merger of a political party with another political party has been misconstrued to be defection by the Speaker and had initiated proceedings against my client.”
Advocate general Ranjan, however, argued that the Speaker has the right to try cases of defection by members of the assembly. “As a matter of fact, till the matter is pending before the tribunal of the Speaker, the high court does not have any jurisdiction to intervene in the matter,” Ranjan is quoted as saying during the hearing.