In July 2021, 12 BJP MLAs were arbitrarily suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly by speaker Bhaskar Jadhav. The Supreme Court today set aside the suspension calling it arbitrary and unconstitutional in nature. The suspension period of one year had begun from the 5th of July 2021 and therefore, would have lasted until the Monsoon session had the Supreme Court not quashed it.
The 12 suspended BJP MLAs were Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkalkar, Parag Alavni, Harish Pimpale, Ram Satpute, Vijay Kumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche and Kirtikumar Bangdia.
The apex court held the suspension beyond the remaining period of the session of the Assembly as ‘non-est’ in law, substantially unconstitutional and irrational. Calling the resolution illegal, the top court said it was “beyond the powers of the assembly”.
With this, the BJP MLAs, who had been suspended earlier, would be eligible for all the relevant benefits that they were entitled to as MLAs.
During the hearing of the case earlier, the court had come down heavily on the MVA government for the arbitrary suspension. “If for a period of 60 days a member of a House of the Legislature of a State is without permission of the House absent from all meetings thereof, the House may declare his seat vacant,” the SC bench had noted adding that had the Speaker then resolved the dispute, this crisis could have been avoided.
The SC bench further reminded the state that 12 constituencies could not be kept unrepresented for such a long time and that the constituents had a right to representation. Judges Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Ravikumar rebuked the Maharashtra state government by adding that allowing such a precedent would put democracy in jeopardy.
“Today it is 12, tomorrow it can be 120,” Justice Khanwilkar had exclaimed earlier in January during a hearing.
Why were the 12 BJP MLAs suspended in June 2021
Speaker in-chair Bhaskar Jadhav had claimed that the opposition created an uproar during the session and tried to pull mics when they were not happy with the response given by the ruling government. He also said that some opposition leaders came on the stage like ‘goons.’
This forced the Speaker to adjourn the proceeding, however, accusing the opposition of using abusive language against him, Jadhav further alleged, “When the House was adjourned, opposition leaders came to my cabin and abused me in front of LoP Devendra Fadnavis and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil.”
At that time, BJP had hit back strongly at the MVA government claiming a conspiracy to reduce numbers.
Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis in an address to the media claimed that they had suspected his move by the MVA to reduce the numbers in the House. Denying all the accusations, “The government has created a story out of the incident and suspended 12 of our MLAs. Our MLAs didn’t abuse the Speaker. There were some heated arguments but our senior member Ashish Shelar on behalf of all MLAs apologised to the Speaker in-Chair Bhaskar Jadhav. Later, the government came up with this plan to suspend our MLAs. We will continue our fight,” informed Fadnavis to the media.
