The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to directly intervene in a dispute over the disqualification of 10 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs in West Bengal, directing party leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay to approach the Calcutta High Court instead.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi disposed of Chattopadhyay's petition, while requesting the high court's chief justice to place the matter before a division bench for urgent consideration and an expeditious decision.
"It seems to us that the petitioner has to take recourse to the Calcutta High Court. We accordingly dispose of this petition at this stage with liberty to the petitioner to file an appropriate petition before the high court. We request the Chief Justice of the high court to list the matter before a division bench for urgent consideration and decide the matter expeditiously," the bench said.
The petition sought a direction to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose to decide the disqualification proceedings against the 10 legislators without further delay.
Five months after petitions, no decision
The disqualification petitions were filed on July 8 against Ritabrata Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Arup Roy, Sandipan Saha, Akhruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh. They are accused of defecting after contesting the Assembly elections on TMC tickets.
At the outset of Thursday's hearing, the Supreme Court noted that the Speaker was expected to decide the petitions within three months. Chattopadhyay's counsel submitted that nearly five months had passed since the petitions were filed, but the Speaker had not adjudicated them.
Justice Bagchi acknowledged the concern but cautioned against bypassing the usual judicial process. "We quite understand. You cannot litigate to jump the queue," he observed.
The counsel urged the bench to ensure that a division bench of the Calcutta High Court heard the matter directly, so that it would not get delayed through another round of intra-court appeals.
"We request an expeditious disposal. There is already an order of this court concerning West Bengal," the lawyer submitted.
Justice Bagchi responded that the court was aware of the situation but could not entertain every such petition merely because it had passed an earlier order in a related matter.
The counsel also pointed out that the Calcutta High Court was on a break until November 11.
Earlier Supreme Court direction and the TMC split
The Supreme Court had previously dealt with the issue in September, when it referred to the three-month timeline for deciding disqualification petitions laid down in an earlier judgment concerning the Manipur Legislative Assembly. On September 28, it gave the West Bengal Speaker time until October 8 to decide the petitions.
The dispute has its roots in a split within the TMC after the party lost the Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Chattopadhyay had been nominated by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction as its Leader of Opposition. However, Speaker Rathindra Bose recognised rebel TMC MLA Ritabrata Banerjee for the post and appointed another member of the breakaway group as Chief Whip.
The rebel faction has claimed the support of 58 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly.
Chattopadhyay's challenge to Speaker's decision
The dispute over the Leader of Opposition's post had earlier reached the Calcutta High Court. On June 18, the court declined to grant interim relief on Chattopadhyay's challenge to the Speaker's decision to appoint Ritabrata Banerjee to the position.
Chattopadhyay had approached the high court after his own nomination was rejected and Banerjee was recognised as the Leader of Opposition.
The latest Supreme Court petition sought to address the delay in deciding the separate disqualification proceedings against the 10 rebel MLAs. By directing Chattopadhyay to move the high court, the bench has left the issue for consideration by a division bench, which it has asked to take up the matter urgently.