W.P.(C) No. 493/2022

SUBHASH DESAI VS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, GOVERNOR OF MAHARASHTRA

 The Supreme Court held that the Speaker must recognise the whip and leader of the legislature party as appointed by the concerned political party. In the event of a split, the Speaker can decide if MLAs of any faction ought to be disqualified and the Election Commission can decide who can use the party’s symbol. Both these decisions can be taken concurrently and neither the Speaker nor the Election Commission needs to wait for the other’s decision.The Supreme Court held that except in extraordinary cases, neither the High Courts nor the Supreme Court can decide disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. The Court further held that an MLA had the right to participate in legislative proceedings while disqualification petitions are pending against them and the validity of decisions taken by the legislature cannot be questioned merely because disqualification petitions were pending against certain members.The Supreme Court ruled that a Governor is only justified in calling a person to prove their majority on the floor of the legislature if the Governor has reasons to believe, based on objective material, that such a person has lost the confidence of the majority of the legislature.On the issue of whether the Speaker can decide disqualification proceedings when a notice for the Speaker’s removal is pending, the correctness of the decision in Nabam Rebia was referred to a larger Bench of seven judges. Until the issue is decided by seven judges, the Court held that the Speaker has the authority to examine whether a motion for their removal was genuine or merely intended to stop them adjudicating disqualification proceedings. If the Speaker found the removal motion to be genuine, then they could pause the disqualification proceedings till the decision on the Speaker’s removal was concluded. Else, the Speaker could reject the motion. The judgment of the Court was unanimous and authored by Chief Justice Chandrachud.