The Supreme Court on Monday said it expected West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathin Bose to adhere to the three-month period fixed by the court for deciding petitions seeking the disqualification of 10 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, made the observation while disposing of a writ petition filed by MLA Sohandeb Chattopadhyay of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction. The petition had sought an early decision on the disqualification petitions.
"We have every reason to believe that the speaker is fully cognisant of the decision of this court and he will make an endeavour to take an appropriate decision within the time-frame fixed," the bench said. The court noted that the three-month period is about to expire. It cited its 2021 judgment in Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly, which held that a Speaker acts as a tribunal when deciding disqualification petitions and is expected to do so within a reasonable period of three months. According to the order as reported by legal news outlets, the period in this case expires on October 8, 2026, three months after the petitions were filed on July 8. Some agency reports gave the date as October 10.
Chattopadhyay had approached Speaker Bose seeking the disqualification of the 10 MLAs, alleging that they had acted against the interests of the party. Appearing for him, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the court that the petitions had been pending for nearly three months. He argued that there was a pattern of delay in deciding such petitions, which allows a breakaway group to secure recognition as the real party in the meantime. Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee also appeared for the petitioner. The petitioner had also asked the court, in the alternative, to direct the Speaker to decide the petitions within the time limits laid down in the 2021 ruling.
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The bench, however, saw no reason to doubt that the Speaker would act in time. Rather than issue a fresh direction, it expressed its expectation that he would do so, and disposed of the petition. Justice Bagchi remarked that it may not be appropriate for a court to set deadlines for a Speaker when courts themselves often take time to decide cases, adding that the judges should "see the mirror" first. Decisions of a Speaker under the Tenth Schedule are open to judicial review, and the court has in earlier cases stressed the need for timely decisions. The court said its order should not be read as a finding on the merits of the disqualification claims or on the rival factions' competing claims, which remain before the Speaker.
The petitions target Arup Roy, Ritabrata Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Sandipan Saha, Seuli Saha, Akhruzzaman, Sabina Yeasmin, Rathin Ghosh, Biplab Mitra and Javed Ahmad Khan. They are alleged to have contested on a TMC ticket and then formed a rival faction, and the petitions seek their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, the anti-defection law. The Tenth Schedule provides for disqualification of legislators on specified grounds, including voluntarily giving up membership of the party on whose ticket they were elected.
The dispute follows the Bharatiya Janata Party's win in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May, which ended decades of TMC rule. After the loss, a large group of TMC MLAs rallied behind Ritabrata Banerjee, whom the Speaker recognised as Leader of the Opposition. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction had nominated Chattopadhyay for the post and challenged the Speaker's decision in the Calcutta High Court, which reportedly declined relief. The rival group is alleged to have been formed after a special session said to have been convened on June 22, and the disqualification petitions were filed on July 8. The Speaker's decision on those petitions is now awaited.
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