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How many times did Parliament discuss conduct of Speaker, SC asks Uddhav faction

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3 years ago

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 The Supreme Court on Tuesday shot a volley of questions at the Uddhav Thackeray faction, asking how many times did the Parliament discuss a review of the conduct of the Speaker, why is that question raised before the court, and also, why should the court change rules just because one or two Speakers went astray.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Uddhav Thackeray faction, submitted before a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, that “your lordships have great confidence in the constitutional office of the Speaker but do they discharge this confidence?”

At this, the Chief Justice replied: “You also have that confidence when you say that the Speaker has to decide the disqualification petitions… that is not dependent on who is the Speaker, Mr Sibal”. He added that the constitutional authority of the Speaker to decide is not based on who the Speaker is.

Sibal said the a Speaker who appoints the whip and Leader of the Opposition without reference to the political party, “you think he can decide in my favour, there is no way!”

The Chief Justice said: “The first Speaker in defiance of legislative rules gave two days’ notice… this is the way everybody is behaving. There are two options: either you debunk the authority of the Speaker or.. in a democracy you value the office of the institution… denigrating constitutional offices including the office of the Speaker.”

When Sibal said they are denigrating themselves, the bench — also comprising Justices M.R. Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P.S. Narasimha — said: “It is a race to the bottom then.”

Justice Narasimha told Sibal: “Legislators, parliamentarians…. decided upon the Speaker to be the tribunal.. it is parliamentarians’ decision, the Tenth Schedule. Therefore, the court is only interpreting that…”

Sibal referred to the decision of the apex court on 27 June last year, where the court granted interim relief to Shinde faction by extending the time to file responses to the disqualification notices. It later, on June 29, gave the go-ahead to a floor test called by the Governor.

Justice Narasimha orally observed: “On one hand if the Speaker is with you, you would say it is a constitutional authority. What is wrong with it… if you have some difficulty, you mean, not you. Look at the way Speakers have behaved. For us, as long as the constitution bench judgment is there, we will go by the fact that the Speaker is the tribunal.”

The bench further added that the Speaker is the presiding officer as per Tenth Schedule and “we will not go back on the decision, that is the final decision, as far as we are concerned”.

Sibal replied by that logic, the June 27 order could not have been passed, and that is what led to what way we are today.

Justice Kohli said that if one or two Speakers have gone astray, would the court be inclined to debunk the whole procedure as laid down and the Tenth Schedule?

To this, Sibal said: My intention is not that, I have been telling what is happening.” Justice Kohli said then it is a conundrum. Sibal said: “Yes, it is a conundrum, a constitutional conundrum and somebody has to sort it out.”

At this juncture, justice Narasimha said: “Another question, every time this question is raised before the court. I would want to ask you how many times did the parliamentarians raise this question in the Parliament saying let us actually amend the Constitution.”

“How many times did the discussion take place in the Parliament to review the conduct of the Speaker. Why is that question raised before the court, which is not a forum for consideration. how many times parties have sat down together and decided this is not working?” he asked.

“Once Kihoto Hollohan was rendered then,” Sibal said referring to the apex court verdict in the 1992 case, upholding the sweeping discretion available to the Speaker in deciding cases of disqualification of MLAs.

Justice Narasimha replied: “Why, it only upheld the Tenth Schedule. It is your making, the Tenth Schedule. This will take us nowhere, Mr Sibal. Frankly, unless there is an amendment to the Constitution, there is a reference, a direct challenge…”

The top court made these observations while dealing with Maharashtra political crisis triggered due to rebellion in the Shiv Sena. It will continue to hear the matter on Wednesday.

On February 17, the apex court had declined to make immediate reference to a seven-judge bench the reconsideration of its 2016 Nabam Rebia judgment, which restricted the power of the Speaker to examine disqualification petitions against MLAs if a resolution for his removal is pending.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India said the issue of reference will be decided only with the merits of the case and fixed the matter for hearing on merits on February 21.

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Maharashtra

Mumbai robbery fugitive arrested from police station after 20 years

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2 hours ago

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November 21, 2025

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Mumbai: Police has claimed to have arrested a wanted accused in a robbery case after 20 years. A case of robbery was registered against Javed Yusuf Shaikh, 47, in the limits of Mumbai’s Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg RA police station in 2005. During this time, the police had also arrested him and he was on bail and did not appear in court proceedings, after which the sessions court issued a warrant against him and declared him a fugitive accused. After the warrant was issued against him, the police arrested him during a search for the fugitive accused. In this regard, the Zone 4 and the police received information that he was staying in a rented house in the police station. The police arrested him from the police station and complied with the court order. The court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against him and now the police took action after the court order declaring him a fugitive and arrested him. This action was carried out by DCP Zone 4 Ragasudha R on the instructions of Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti.

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Maharashtra

Samajwadi Party MLA Raees Shaikh criticism of BJP’s hostility towards Urdu

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1 day ago

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November 20, 2025

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Mumbai: The campaign for the Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Council elections in the state has reached its peak and BJP leaders have published booklets in Urdu to promote their candidates. Samajwadi Party MLA from ‘Bhiwandi East’ Raees Shaikh has welcomed the BJP’s Urdu booklet. MLA Shaikh claimed that the BJP has realised, albeit belatedly, that Urdu is not the language of any single religion.

BJP MLA from ‘Aran’ in Raigad district Mahesh Baldi’s workers are distributing booklets in Urdu during the Municipal Council elections. Pointing out this, MLA Raees Shaikh said that ‘on one hand they hate Muslims on the basis of religion and when their votes are needed, they resort to Urdu language’, which is a double-edged sword of the BJP. State Fisheries and Ports Minister Nitish Rane should express his feelings about the printing of BJP’s campaign booklets in Urdu.

The state has an Urdu Sahitya Academy. However, this academy is considered an institution working for Muslims. The condition of the Urdu Academy is such that there is no fund, no office, no staff. Urdu language centers, Urdu schools, Urdu speaking teachers, Urdu homes are not given funds and space. The BJP government has closed the Urdu monthly ‘Lok Rajya’, which has been running for five decades. MLA Raees Shaikh has asked why the BJP, which is so hostile to the Urdu language and Muslims, should regret the Urdu Muslim votes at the time of elections? Urdu is not the language of any religion. Urdu speaking writers and lyricists have contributed a lot to the development of Bollywood. There are 75 lakh Urdu speakers in the state and 25 Urdu dailies are published in the state daily. MLA Raees Shaikh has advised the BJP to curb its conspiracy to spread hatred on the basis of language and religion for selfish politics.

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Maharashtra

Samajwadi Party will contest Mumbai BMC elections alone Abu Asim Azmi

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2 days ago

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November 19, 2025

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Mumbai: The Samajwadi Party will contest the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections with full vigor, this was claimed by Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader and worker assemblyman Abu Asim Azmi in a press conference held at Islam Gymkhana here today. He said that the situation in Govindi is very bad, there is a shortage of funds here and difficulties have arisen in providing funds. If any funds are sought, the excuse is given that the funds have been spent on the Ladli Behan Yojana and the funds are not available. He said that the Samajwadi Party is also participating in the Zilla Parishad and Gram Panchayat elections in Maharashtra. Along with this, Abu Asim Azmi has also announced to contest the elections alone on about 150 seats in the BMC elections.

Abu Asim Azmi said that from November 20, the Samajwadi Party will distribute AB forms to its candidates and this process will continue till December 5. The Samajwadi Party will field its candidates in the constituencies where its candidates will be able to participate in the elections with strength. He said that the way the Samajwadi Party had made an agreement with the Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi last time, but it has been betrayed, he said that the Samajwadi Party was not provided a seat until the date of filling the form in the assembly elections ended and then two seats were given and no discussion was even held with us regarding this. The Samajwadi Party is free to take decisions for the elections in Maharashtra. National President Akhilesh Yadav has given full responsibility for this. He has made it clear that he is free to compromise with secular parties in Maharashtra to keep communal forces away from power. However, despite this, the attitude of a big party like Congress towards its allies is not appropriate and compromises are broken in the very elections. Therefore, the Samajwadi Party has now decided to contest the BMC elections alone. He said that in Maharashtra, a Samajwadi Party candidate is also in the fray in the Gram Panchayat Zilla Parishad elections, along with this, the Samajwadi Party will contest the elections on development works. He said that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had visited Govindi once and expressed concern about the plight of the streets here. After that, we demanded funds from Ajit Pawar and he promised to provide more funds, but when we talked to him, he said that the funds have been spent on the Ladli Behan Yojana. He said that elections have not been held for four years, so the condition of other districts including the corporation is very bad. He alleged that funds are not being provided to former members of our party, but if someone joins the Ajit Pawar group or Shinde Sena, it does not matter whether he was a corporator or not, funds are provided to him immediately. In such a situation, this discrimination should end and all former corporators should be provided funds because they understand the problems of their areas.

He said that the lives of the people have become unbearable due to the SMS company in Govindi Shivaji Nagar. The High Court has given more time to the company, due to which there is disappointment among the people. The issue will be approached in the Supreme Court. Abu Asim Azmi has once again strongly demanded from the government to close the SMS company and has also assured to take all necessary steps for this and has requested the people to strengthen the Samajwadi Party. Samajwadi Party leader Advocate Yousuf Abrahani, MLA Raees Sheikh, and other leaders were present in this press conference.

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