SC Hearing Day Sees Speaker Finally Move On 20 TMC Rebels
After more than two months of petitions, reminders and representations from the Trinamool Congress, the Lok Sabha Secretariat has finally issued notices to 20 rebel TMC MPs facing disqualification proceedings. The move came on August 25, the very day the Supreme Court took up Abhishek Banerjee's plea alleging delay in deciding the cases.
The notices, dated August 25, ask the MPs to respond within seven days to disqualification petitions filed by Abhishek Banerjee on June 18 under the anti-defection law.
The timing has put the Speaker's handling of the matter under sharper scrutiny. Banerjee had already sent a written reminder on July 27 and personally met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on August 12 seeking action. With the petitions still pending, he approached the Supreme Court.
The case was publicly listed by August 24. When it came up the following day, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Speaker and the Lok Sabha Secretary-General and told the Bench that notices had been issued to the rebel MPs. The notices that have since emerged themselves carry the August 25 date.
There is no public record establishing precisely when during the day the notices were prepared or dispatched. What is clear is that formal action surfaced only after the dispute over the delay had reached the Supreme Court.
The Bench, comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, made it clear that issuing notices alone would not settle the matter. Justice Bagchi observed that the issue was about bringing the proceedings to a conclusion within a time frame.
The court issued notice to the 20 rebel MPs but did not separately issue notice to the Speaker or Secretary-General after Mehta said he represented them.
The rebellion itself came soon after the BJP's dramatic takeover in West Bengal. Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as the state's first BJP chief minister on May 9 after the party won 207 Assembly seats and ended 15 years of TMC rule.
Just 36 days later, on June 14, 20 TMC Lok Sabha MPs announced that they had joined or merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and would support the BJP-led NDA.
Among the prominent rebels were veteran parliamentarian Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. Before approaching Speaker Birla, the dissident MPs had met Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav at his Delhi residence. They subsequently began participating in NDA parliamentary activities.
The TMC opposed the move from the outset. On June 14 itself, Banerjee urged the Speaker not to grant recognition, status or facilities to any purported breakaway faction. Four days later, he filed separate disqualification petitions against the 20 MPs.
The Speaker subsequently allowed the rebels to sit separately in the Lok Sabha. Their demand for formal recognition of the claimed NCPI merger, however, had remained under consideration.
That distinction is central to the anti-defection battle. The rebels argue that 20 MPs constitute more than two-thirds of the TMC's 28-member Lok Sabha contingent and therefore qualify for protection under the merger exception in the Tenth Schedule.
The TMC disputes that interpretation. It maintains that the party itself never merged with NCPI and that MPs elected on the TMC symbol cannot avoid disqualification merely by assembling a two-thirds bloc and joining another political formation.
The Speaker will now have to examine that defence after receiving the MPs' replies. But the political controversy has widened beyond the merits of the merger claim. The chronology has also raised scrutiny over why the disqualification petitions remained pending for more than two months despite a reminder and a personal meeting with the Speaker, only for notices to emerge on the day the Supreme Court examined the delay.
Brief Timeline
May 9:
Suvendu Adhikari takes oath as West Bengal's first BJP chief minister.
June 14:
Twenty TMC MPs announce their NCPI move and support for the NDA. The TMC asks the Speaker not to recognise the faction.
June 18:
Abhishek Banerjee files disqualification petitions against the rebels.
July 27:
Banerjee sends a written reminder seeking action.
August 12:
Banerjee meets Speaker Om Birla over the pending cases.
August 24:
The Supreme Court challenge over the delay is listed for hearing.
August 25:
The Supreme Court hears the case. The Lok Sabha Secretariat's notices to the 20 MPs carry the same date.
August 26:
The notices become public, giving the MPs seven days to respond.
The replies will now determine the next stage of the anti-defection proceedings. The Supreme Court's intervention has also ensured that the focus will remain not only on what the Speaker ultimately decides, but on how quickly that decision comes.