The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that MLAs cannot be suspended from an Assembly beyond the remainder of an ongoing “session” as it would allow governments to manipulate Opposition numbers and rule through intimidation, which would strike at the very roots of a democratic polity.
“…Suspension beyond the remainder period of the ongoing session would not only be a grossly irrational measure, but also violative of basic democratic values owing to unessential deprivation of the member concerned and more importantly, the constituency would remain unrepresented in the Assembly,” the Supreme Court said while overturning the one-year suspension of 12 BJP legislators in Maharashtra.
“It would also impact the democratic set-up as a whole by permitting the thin-majority government of the day to manipulate the numbers of the Opposition party in the House in an undemocratic manner,” a bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravi Kumar said.
“Not only that, the Opposition will not be able to effectively participate in the discussion/ debate in the House owing to the constant fear of its members being suspended for a longer period. There would be no purposeful or meaningful debates but one in terrorem and as per the whims of the majority. That would not be healthy for the democracy as a whole,” the apex court said in the 90-page judgment.
The 12 MLAs were handed a one-year suspension by the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra in July 2021 for unruly conduct over allegations of denial of a proper voice to the Opposition members in the Assembly.
“We have no hesitation in concluding that the impugned resolution suffers from the vice of being unconstitutional, grossly illegal and irrational to the extent of period of suspension beyond the remainder of the concerned (ongoing) session,” the Supreme Court said.
“Suffice it to observe that oneyear suspension is worse than ‘expulsion’, ‘disqualification’ or ‘resignation’ — insofar as the right of the constituency to be represented before the House/ Assembly is concerned.
“Suspension beyond the session would be bordering on punishing not only the member concerned, but also inevitably impact the legitimate rights of the constituency from where the member had been elected,” Justice Khanwilkar, who authored the judgment, said, while upholding the appeal filed by the MLAs challenging their suspension.
According to the court, suspending members for a time span “beyond the period necessary” instead of ensuring smooth functioning of the House “by itself… suffers from the vice of being a grossly irrational measure… and (is) also substantively illegal and unconstitutional”.
The BJP MLAs whose suspension has been quashed are Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alavani, Harish Pimple, Ram Satpute, Jaikumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche and Kritikumar alias Bunty Bhangdiya.
The bench said if the suspension period exceeded the remainder of an ongoing session, it would result in unnecessary deprivation.
“And longer or excessive deprival would not only be regarded as irrational, but closer to or bordering on perversity. Resultantly, such an action would be violative of procedure established by law and also manifestly arbitrary, grossly irrational and illegal and violative of Articles 14 (equality) and 21 (life and persona liberty) of the Constitution,” the bench said.
The court said suspension should be resorted to merely for ensuring orderly conduct of House business during a session.
“Anything in excess of that would be irrational suspension. This is so because the member represents the constituency from where he has been duly elected and longer suspension would entail in deprivation of the constituency to be represented in the House,” Justice Khanwilkar observed.
The court said the power exercised by the Speaker should take action only if the conduct of a member is “grossly disorderly”.
