The Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested the Parliament rethink on the power granted to the Assembly Speaker to decide disqualification of legislators.
The suggestion for devising an independent mechanism to deal with such pleas against lawmakers came in a judgment by which the top court asked the Manipur Assembly Speaker to decide within four weeks the plea of a Congress leader seeking disqualification of BJP lawmaker and Manipur Forest Minister T Shyamkumar.
The Supreme Court made the statement while observing that the Speaker also belongs to a political party which can influence him in the decision-making process.
The apex court further directed the Manipur Speaker to take a decision on the disqualification of Shyamkumar in four weeks.
A bench headed by Justice RF Nariman had granted liberty to Congress MLA Fajur Rahim and K Meghachandra to approach it again if the Assembly Speaker fails to take a decision within four weeks on their plea seeking disqualification of the BJP minister.
The BJP minister had won the assembly election on a Congress ticket and later joined the BJP and became a minister. This led to the filing of the plea seeking his disqualification.
In another instance, former Assembly Speaker of Karnataka KR Ramesh Kumar had in 2019, disqualified 17 rebel MLAs as they withdrew support leading to the fall of the 14-month Congress JD(S) coalition government in the state.