Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking urgent hearing on the disqualification petitions against 20 rebel party MPs who have joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). In his letter to the Speaker, Abhishek Banerjee, who is Leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party in Lok Sabha, said that more than five weeks have elapsed since the petitions were filed and no notices have been issued, hearings have not been scheduled and noted that "such continued inaction is a matter of grave concern". Banerjee recalled that the disqualification petitions were filed on June 19, 2026 and said that each of the twenty petitions should be heard and decided separately.
"More than five weeks have elapsed since the filing of the petitions. To date, no notices have been issued, no hearings have been scheduled and no procedural directions appear have been passed. Such continued inaction is a matter of grave concern," the letter said. Banerjee said it is well settled that the constitutional jurisdiction vested in the Speaker under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule is required to be exercised within a reasonable time so as to preserve the efficacy and purpose of the anti-defection law. "An unduly prolonged pendency of disqualification proceedings frustrates the constitutional objective of the Tenth Schedule, permits the continuance of an uncertainty that the Constitution seeks to avoid, and risks rendering the safeguards embodied in the anti-defection law ineffective," he said. The Trinamool Congress leader expressed concern that the rebel party MPs, who have joined "so-called NCPI", were invited to the all-party meeting held ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament.
"The urgency of the matter has been further accentuated by the decision of the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs to invite the Members against whom the disqualification petitions are pending, as a separate group, to the All-Party Meeting held on July 19, 2026," he said. The Trinmool Congress leader said that such developments underscore the imperative for an expeditious determination of the petitions, as continued uncertainty regarding the status of the Members concerned has the potential to undermine both the efficacy of the Tenth Schedule and the integrity of parliamentary proceedings. "In these circumstances, I respectfully request that the petitions be taken up for hearing on an urgent basis. As each petition concerns the disqualification of an individual Member and requires an independent determination on the facts and applicable law, I further request that each of the twenty petitions be heard and decided separately, after affording all parties concerned, together with their respective legal representatives, a full and effective opportunity of being heard, consistent with the principles of natural justice," Banerjee said. "I further request that the proceedings be concluded and appropriate orders be passed with all reasonable expedition, in discharge of the constitutional responsibility entrusted to the Speaker under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule," he added.