Plea against open voting: SC to consider Maharashtra MLA's plea on validity of rules on speaker election

The Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to consider listing the plea of a Maharashtra BJP MLA challenging the validity of new rules of open voting method to elect the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the state AssemblyA bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for lawmaker Girish Mahajan that the plea needed urgent hearing in view of the changes made in the process for electing the Speaker and Deputy SpeakerThis is regarding the election of the Speaker in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly I am an MLA the bench saidLet me see the CJI saidThe matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit on Monday and the MLA was asked to mention it before the bench headed by the CJIMahajan has challenged the Bombay High Courts March 9 order dismissing his plea against the new rules envisaging the open voting method to elect the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the AssemblyMahajan has alleged that the notification dated December 23 2021 was illegally and arbitrarily issued by the Maharashtra government amending Rules 6 and 7 of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rule 1960 under which the secret ballot method was replaced with an open vote system through voice vote and show of handsThe appeal filed through advocates Abhikalp Pratap Singh and Siddharth Dharmadhikari said that the Bombay High Court had dismissed on March 9 the PIL filed by Mahajan that raised several substantial questions of laws having an impact on the general public at largeThe appeal questioned whether Maharashtra Assembly Rules 1960 are procedures established by law as held by this court in a plethora of casesWhether the Governor of State has discretionary powers insofar as fixing the date for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly is concerned the appeal saidIt said that another substantial question of law raised is whether the chief minister of a state can exercise any power under the Constitution of India without aid and advice of the Council of MinistersThe appeal further said Whether the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly can be selected by the Chief Minister of stateThe petitioner furthermost respectfully states that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have a very significant role in the healthy functioning of the democratic process in the state and they are constitutionally expected to be free fair and nonpartisan persons operating above any political party it saidIt added that the office of Speaker of the Assembly has a duty to be impartial and unbiased to keep the trust of the general public in the process of democracyFurther the SpeakersChairmen hold a pivotal position in the scheme of Parliamentary democracy and are guardians of the rights and privileges of the HouseThey are expected to and do take farreaching decisions in the functioning of Parliamentary democracy the appeal saidMahajan through his appeal said that the MLA Rules are procedures established by law and cannot be derogated by the Assembly and such rules can only be amended as per the procedure established under the rules as applicable in the Maharashtra AssemblyThe petitioner further submits that the Impugned Notification has been wrongly issued exercising powers under Rule 225 3 of the MLA Rules which envisages a situation that there were no objections received by the committee to the proposed amendments the petition said and termed it erroneousIt stressed that 47 objectionssuggestions were received by the committee However they were completely made redundant and ignored by the committeeIt added that once any objectionsuggestions are received the procedure to be followed for the amendment to be passed has been envisaged under 225 2 of the MLA Rules 1960However instead of following the procedure under Rule 225 2 and passing the amendment under the said rule the respondents have mischievously exercised its powers under Rule 2253 to issue the impugned notification the appeal saidMahajan said the High Court while dismissing the PIL had observed that the rules do not specify anywhere that the chief minister is unilaterally taking a decision to appoint Speaker and Deputy Speaker and that he is taking the decision on the date of the electionThe copy of the impugned order is not yet available and the petitioner undertakes to place on record the impugned order as and when it is available he said in his appealThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever