Plea in SC to restrain disqualified/resignee MLAs from fighting polls for 5-yrs
New Delhi: Amidst the ongoing political crisis in Maharashtra, an application has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking urgent directions in a pending case so that legislators who are disqualified from the legislative assembly or have resigned, are restrained from contesting elections up to five years.
The plea was filed by the Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, Jaya Thakur, in an already pending petition filed by her in 2021, in which the Apex Court had issued notices and sought central government’s response in January 2021.
The plea, therefore, sought the interim direction “Restrain MLAs from contesting the election up to five years, from the date of his resignation/disqualification from the Assembly.”
Thakur had in that petition filed before the Apex Court, stated that a recent trend has developed across the country by political parties to render the provisions of Xth Schedule redundant by making ruling party MLAs resign from the House leading to the fall of the government.
“The MLAs who resign are then given ministerial posts by the new government and are also given tickets to re-contest for by-elections,” the plea of Thakur read.
She, in her latest plea, said that as no reply has still been filed by the government, thereby she moved the Supreme Court again by filing the latest petition.
“The application stated that since there has been no headway in the case, political parties are taking disadvantage of this situation and continuously destroying the elected governments in various States. Recently, the same thing(s) are repeated in State of Maharashtra. These political parties are again trying to destroy the Democratic Fabric of our country,” the application added.
The applicant further claimed that in the year 2019, in the State of Karnataka, 17 MLAs who resigned/were disqualified by the Speaker for anti-party activities, sought re-election and 11 of them got reelected. Ten of them got ministerial berths in the new Government that was formed after the earlier government fell.
The applicant said that such undemocratic practices are making a mockery of the democracy and the Constitution.
“The result is that due to this, people of the State are denied stability and the Voters are denied their right to choose and elect representatives having a common ideology,” the application said.
SC direction has been sought to restrain those lawmakers from contesting polls for 5 yrs who are disqualified or have resigned in the wake of Maharashtra political crisis.
Breaking silence after being pushed to the brink as his government seemed all but have collapsed as a string of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs followed party leader Eknath Shinde from Gujarat to Assam, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was ready to quit “as CM” if the rebel MLAs say they do not want him to continue as their CM.
Facing party workers, leaders of MVA and others at large during an official Facebook Live, Thackeray on Wednesday said his resignation letter is ready, and added if even one disgruntled rebel MLA asks for him to quit, he will. (UNI)
#Jaya Thakur, #Parliament reform