Supreme Court reserves verdict on plea over suspension of 12 Maharashtra BJP MLAs

New Delhi, January 19

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a petition challenging the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly’s decision to suspend 12 BJP MLAs for a year for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer in July last year.

A three-judge Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar – which heard at length senior counsel Aryama Sundaram for the Assembly and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani for the petitioners — asked the parties to file their written submissions within a week.

On Tuesday, the top court had questioned the rationale behind the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly’s decision to suspend 12 BJP MLAs for a year, saying the purpose behind such a decision should have something to do with the session.

“There should be some purpose of suspension and the purpose is with regards to the session. It should not travel beyond that session. Anything other than this would be irrational. The real issue is about the rationality of the decision and the same should be for some purpose,” it had said.

The Bench also pointed out that such long-term suspensions could be misused by a government having a razor-thin majority for its survival.

Terming the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs for a year as “worse than expulsion”, the top court had on January 11 said it created a constitutional void as the constituencies concerned remained unrepresented in the House.