No respite for disqualified Uttarakhand MLAs from Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has refused to allow the disqualified Congress MLAs of Uttarakhand to take part in the proceedings of the assembly that convenes on Thursday. The nine disqualified MLAs had cited the SC ruling in the recent Arunachal case to demand that the court stay their disqualification and let them take part in the proceedings.

They argued, through senior advocate CA Sundaram, the Speaker disqualified them after they gave a notice about a motion to remove him from the post. This was mala fide and actuated by the bias, he argued, urging the court to extend the benefit of the Arunachal ruling, which said the Speaker must first face removal motion before dealing with disqualification, to them.

Under the rules, he said, the Speaker must face the proceedings before all the then members. This composition was changed by the disqualification, he argued. The House cannot take up the no-confidence motion introduced by them against the Speaker in their presence, he argued.

However, the Speaker of the House, through senior advocate Kapil Sibal, resisted this, saying the court cannot allow them to have the benefit of the Arunachal ruling. That ruling must be applied prospectively and not retrospectively, he said. In any case, he said, the Arunachal Speaker had sought a review of the ruling, arguing it would destroy the Tenth Schedule, which makes defection a sin.