CJI must walk the talk on MLAs' disqualification: Sena (UBT)
The editorial was against the backdrop of Supreme Court's Thursday judgment, where it said that to protect the foundations of democracy, Parliament must take a call on the effectiveness of the anti-defection law mechanism, which has been virtually blunted due to the widely perceived partisanship of speakers, leading to delays in deciding disqualification petitions against political turncoats.
CJI B R Gavai and Justice A G Masih gave this ruling while directing the Telangana assembly speaker to decide within three months the disqualification petitions filed against 10 BRS MLAs who defected to Congress after it formed govt in the state following the Nov 2023 elections.
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The editorial referred to the Supreme Court's comments expressing concern that the Speaker of Telangana Assembly did not send a notice to the 'traitor' MLAs regarding their disqualification petitions for seven months.
"If CJI Gavai and Justice AG Masih sincerely believe that the usefulness of the anti-defection law is being weakened by this, then it is their responsibility to revive democracy that has fallen on their doorstep.
There were wholesale defections in Maharashtra at the same time. Their verdict should have been announced before the assembly elections. That did not happen. Now again, the SC is playing with the dates of hearing on the petitions of NCP and Shiv Sena regarding the party and symbol.
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Then how will the Constitution, law and democratic values remain alive?,' the Sena (UBT) the editorial said. "What happened in Maharashtra 3.5 years ago, more or less happened in Telangana. The only difference is that these MLAs joined the Congress. If they had joined BJP, as per Amit Shah's suggestion, the entire BRS party along with the official symbol would have been given to these splinter MLAs, and even these traitors would have continued to boast that 'our party is the real one'.
The Election Commission did the 'despicable act' of handing over the original party symbol along with the splinter party, i.e. the traitors, to the hands of the Shiv Sena and despite repeatedly appealing to the SC against this decision, "the goddess of justice became blind, deaf and mute," the editorial said.
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