Maharashtra Legislative Council Chairman meets President, seeks judicial review of SC order on suspended MLAs

The presiding officers of the two Houses of Maharashtra’s legislature, in their submission before the President, said that the top court judgment had “overstepped” confines marked by the Constitution between the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature.

On January 29, the SC had ruled that the Maharashtra Assembly’s July 5, 2021 resolution suspending 12 BJP MLAs for one year following alleged misbehaviour in the House was “unconstitutional, substantively illegal and irrational”. The SC had said that the legislators could not have been suspended beyond the tenure of that session.

On Thursday, Maharashtra Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar along with the deputy speaker of Legislative Assembly Narhari Zirwal and deputy chairman of the Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe met the President at Raj Bhavan and handed over a memorandum, signed by all three, to him.

“We hold the Honourable Supreme Court in the highest possible esteem. Yet, we are compelled to submit with utmost humbleness that the aforementioned judgement passed by the Honourable Supreme Court does not sit well with the provisions of Article 190, 194 and 212 of the Constitution,” the memorandum stated.

“We, in our modest capacity, also feel that the judgement also distances itself from the basic structure of the Constitution as laid-out in the matter of Keshavanand Bharati Vs Kerala Govt. We beg to state that this judgement has overstepped the well-defined confines marked by the Constitution between the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature,” it added.

It also said that the curtailment culminates in the limitation of Presiding Officers’ powers to maintain decorum in the Houses. “This is not only akin to re-drafting of the Constitutional provisions but also tantamount to committing an act which is clearly disallowed by the Makers of the Constitution in no uncertain terms,” it said.

Calling for a judicial review of the judgment, the memorandum states “….The honourable President of India has been insistently urged to oblige us by exercising the powers conferred upon him by Article 143 of the constitution and request the SC to subject the aforesaid judgement to a judicial review.”

Later in the evening Nimbalkar, speaking to the media, said that the President had assured them that he would look into the matter. “He was familiar with the judgment and has assured us of examining it on merits,” said Nimbalkar.

Nimbalkar further said that even though the SC judgement, given by a three-member bench, has been accepted, they wanted it to be referred to its Constitution bench.

Nimbalkar further said that in the 70 years of Indian democracy, this is the first time that he has seen the SC interfering in the functioning of the legislature.

He further said that he will be writing to the speakers of other assemblies in the country over this issue.

“We will also be writing to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the presiding officers of the legislatures of all the states requesting to convene a meeting to deliberate upon the legislative powers as the SC judgment will be applicable to both the Parliament and state legislatures,” Nimbalkar added.

However, Nimbalkar said that the state legislature has decided to honour the SC order to avoid any bitterness and clashes. “The suspended lawmakers have been allowed to enter the legislature premises and their legislative rights have been restored. They will also be allowed to attend the coming budget session,” he added.

During the Maharashtra Assembly’s monsoon session last year, 12 MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were suspended for one year for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer in the Assembly Speaker’s chamber.