In real contempt of the Constitution
qualify them were filed in November 2018. The Speaker chose to keep the petitions pending. It was only on January 21, 2020, that the proceedings gained some momentum when SC directed that all pending disqualification petitions before Speakers across India be decided in three months. In Manipur, the Speaker’s orders are under challenge. Hopefully, the court will show the same urgency in deciding these matters as the court did in Rajasthan.
No other Speaker has honoured the SC judgment by deciding on such disqualification petitions within the time-frame prescribed by it.
In Tamil Nadu, disqualification petitions have been pending before the Speaker since
March 2017. The term of the Assembly ends in 2022.
In Madhya Pradesh, disqualification petitions against 19 Congress MLAS who joined the BJP were filed in March 2020. But only a pro-tem Speaker adorns the chair. A dulyelected Speaker alone can deal with them.
Speakers of legislative assemblies seek to protect the members of the party to which they belong and choose to delay, for one reason or another, resolution of disqualification petitions. Courts, time and again, have chosen not to interfere. This gives constitutional protection for openly unconstitutional acts. The Speaker does not decide on these matters for years, and if courts cannot direct the Speaker to decide them, then those who have openly defied the constitution continue to be members of legislative assemblies without any judicial resolution. The courts’ inaction allows for the perpetuation of an illegality.
There is yet another dimension of the manner in which elected governments are toppled. With new platforms of information, the goings-on in destabilising governments are matters of public knowledge. Willing legislators are flown out in chartered flights, cloistered in five-star facilities with the sole intent of usurping power by blandishments offered to willing takers. This display of arrogance of power and disregard for constitutional values have now become the cornerstone of political activism.
It is the contempt for India’s constitutional values and laws that is a wake-up call for those who, under our constitutional scheme, have the duty to protect them.