Speaker arbiter under anti-defection law: SC

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, February 21

Maintaining that the Speaker is the arbiter under anti-defection law, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said unless its 1992 verdict upholding the validity of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution was reversed, the Speaker would continue to act as a tribunal in such cases.

“As long as the Constitution Bench judgment holds ground, we will go by that the Speaker is the tribunal under the 10th Schedule (of the Constitution),” a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who represented the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena.

“Merely because one or two Speakers have gone astray would the court be inclined to debunk the whole procedure as laid down under the 10th Schedule?” wondered the Bench, which also included Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha.

The court’s comments came after Sibal questioned the role of the Speaker. “You cannot destabilise a democratically elected government and if this court upholds these acts by a judicial order, then it is encouraging defection. This will have far-reaching consequences for the country,” Sibal argued.

The Bench, which was hearing issues arising out of the 2022 political crisis in Maharashtra that resulted in the downfall of Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Aghadi Government, wondered as to how many times political parties deliberated on shortcomings in the anti-defection law in Parliament. “Can you tell how many times have the parties sat down and decided that this system is not working? This will take us nowhere,” it asked Sibal, who will resume his arguments on Wednesday.

Cites 1992 case

Unless the 1992 verdict in Kihoto Hollohon’s case upholding the validity of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution is reversed, the Speaker will continue to act as a tribunal. — CJI-led Constitution Bench