While observing a plea seeking directions the Centre to lay down a strict time-frame for Speakers of Lok Sabha, the Supreme Court on Thursday said that it falls under the Parliament’s jurisdiction.
AICC Plea Urges Supreme Court For Uniform Process During Defections
The bench headed by the Chief Justice N.V. Ramana made an observation while hearing a plea seeking strict guidelines for the Speakers of Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The plea urged the apex court to disqualify the pleas filed against the MPs or MLAs for defecting from the other parties.
ALSO READ: Supreme Court Dismisses Petitions Against CBSE, ICSE Class 12 Schemes
All India Congress Committee (AICC) member Ranajit Mukherjee filed the plea and also requested for guidelines for a uniform process of decision making. He also said that the defection cases should be under strict guidelines especially for the urgent and time-bound manner.
The plea said: “These rampant and unchecked political defections for personal or political gain, hit at the root of Indian democracy, and violate the fundamental rights of Indian Citizens, under Article 21 of the Constitution”.
Supreme Court Refuses To Frame Legislation
After hearing the plea, the bench that also comprised of A.S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy noted that the requests mentioned in the plea by the petitioner falls within the jurisdiction of the Parliament and not the top court. Following which, the court cannot frame the laws for the same.
The bench said: “How can we frame legislation? There is a separate institution (Parliament) for that”. The bench further said that the same issues was raised in the case of a Karnataka MLA disqualified and the court said the same thing.
The Chief Justice said that they have already expressed their opinions (on matters like these) during the Karnataka MLAs case. When the court heard the case, advocate Kapil Sibal expressed the same argument.
The bench further suggested the counsel to refer to the judgement made in Karnataka MLA’s case and then approach the court again. The court has now scheduled the matter for hearing after two weeks.
