Because of the remaining tenure of the legislative assembly, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that pleas under the anti-defection law must be dealt with expeditiously and that high courts should not deny directions to speakers merely.
“What we find from the record is that there are allegations against respondent no. On this premise, it is alleged that respondent no. 4 (Sapre) of voluntarily giving up membership of the party on whose ticket she was declared elected. 4 has incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution,” said the bench in its order.
Directing the Madhya Pradesh assembly speaker to decide within two months a pending disqualification petition against Congress MLA Nirmala Sapre, the court observed that even where a high court finds no urgency in a disqualification matter, issues arising under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution must be dealt with promptly in accordance with the court’s earlier judgments.
Sapre, however, maintained that she had resigned from the Congress but had not joined the BJP, describing the allegations against her as baseless. Singhar’s petition alleged that Sapre, who was elected from the Bina constituency on a Congress ticket in the 2023 assembly elections, had voluntarily given up her party membership and aligned herself with the BJP without resigning as an MLA. The allegations included her appearance on stage at a programme attended by chief minister Mohan Yadav in Rahatgarh on May 5, 2024, during the Lok Sabha election campaign. An application seeking action against Sapre under the anti-defection law was moved before the speaker on June 30, 2024.
