Twelve BJP MLAs from Maharashtra on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging their one-year suspension from the state Legislative Assembly for alleged misbehaviour with the presiding officer.
The MLAs in their petition said the resolution dated 5 July has been passed in undue haste and is politically motivated to whittle down the numbers of the Opposition Party. The impugned resolution having been passed with undue haste, the requirements of Article 14 of the Constitution of India have been completely brushed aside, it added
The petitioner further stated that the Minister who brought the motion of suspension had no way of identifying the 12 MLA’s in as much as a considerable crowd had gathered in the chamber of the Deputy Speaker. Thus, the whole action is ex facie arbitrary.
The MLAs alleged and said it was an act to suppress the voice and an attempt to bring down the number of members in the Opposition. The petition termed the action of suspension as “motivated and mala fide”.
Additionally, they argued that the suspension for 1 year was highly disproportionate.
They also argued that the heated exchanges between the ruling party and opposition form the essence of democracy and such action has been taken only to dilute the opposition strength.
On July 5, these 12 MLAs were suspended from the Assembly for one year after the state government had accused them of “misbehaving” with presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav in the Speaker’s chamber.
The 12 suspended members are- Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alavani, Harish Pimpale, Yogesh Sagar, Jay Kumar Rawat, Narayan Kuche, Ram Satpute and Bunty Bhangdia.