Supreme Court said on Tuesday that suspension from the Legislative Assembly for a year is “worse” than expulsion, as the consequences are so dreadful and it affects the right of a constituency to remain represented in the House.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, which was hearing the pleas filed by 12 BJP MLAs who have challenged their one-year suspension from the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for allegedly misbehaving with the presiding officer, observed that there was a statutory obligation to fill in a seat within six months.
“You cannot create a constitutional void, a hiatus situation for the constituency. And it is one constituency or 12 constituencies, it makes no difference. Each constituency has equal amount of right to be represented in the House,” the court observed.
It said the House cannot suspend a Member beyond 59 days. Suspension of the MLAs would amount to punishing the constituencies as a whole.
The Bench referred to Article 190 (4) of the Constitution which says that if for a period of 60 days, a member of a House, without its permission, is absent from all meetings, the House may declare his or her seat vacant.
The court has posted the case for January 18.
