What Is Reasonable Time According to Speaker, Wonders SC
The apex court in its previous hearing had sought these details and the progress of the petitions.
Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Telangana State Legislative Assembly secretary for continued silence and failure to inform the court about the Assembly Speaker’s perception about “reasonable time” to decide the disqualification petitions of defected BRS MLAs.
The apex court in its previous hearing had sought these details and the progress of the petitions.
On Monday, a division bench of the apex court, comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran, asked, “What is the reasonable time… it must be according to the dictionary.”
The court opined that reasonable time cannot be taken as per one’s wishes and questioned the secretary’ counsel, “Is the ten-month time not reasonable enough.”
Observing that democratic rights cannot be undermined, the bench remarked: “If you don’t give us the reply for reasonable time ... then, we are reasonable men. The rights of a party in democracy cannot be permitted to be frustrated.”
The bench was dealing with the special leave petitions and petitions filed by BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy, K.P. Vivekanand and K.T. Rama Rao on the Speaker’s delay in deciding the disqualification of 10 BRS MLAs, who had defected to the Congress.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Assembly secretary, sought more time to submit the Speaker’s perception. He pointed out that in cases of ‘Sampath Kumar’ and ‘Subash Desai’, the Supreme Court had said that the Speaker can take a decision on disqualification within a reasonable time.
Counsels for the petitioners submitted that in the ‘Keisham Meghachandra’ case, the apex court had made it clear that reasonable time implied just three months.
However, the bench gave one week’s time to inform about the Speaker's take on reasonable time and adjourned the matter to February 18.