The 12 BJP MLAs had been suspended for a year in July 2021 for their alleged unruly and threatening behaviour towards the Speaker
File image of the BJP MLAs protesting against the suspension. PTI
The Supreme Court set aside the Maharashtra Assembly’s decision to suspend 12 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a one-year period beginning 5 July 2021.
A Live Law report stated that the apex court held the resolution to suspend the MLAs beyond the session as “unconstitutional”, “illegal” and “beyond the powers of the assembly”. It stated that such a suspension could be limited only to the ongoing session, which was the Monsoon Session of 2021.
The MLAs will now be entitled to all consequential benefits after the conclusion of the session in July, last year.
Here’s a reminder of what happened last year.
On 5 July 2021, Maharashtra Speaker in-chair Bhaskar Jadhav had suspended 12 BJP MLAs for one year over their alleged unruly behaviour in the House.
The 12 suspended BJP MLAs are: Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkalkar, Parag Alavni, Harish Pimpale, Ram Satpute, Vijay Kumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche and Kirtikumar Bangdia.
Reports state that pandemonium broke out in the Assembly when senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbul stood up to introduce a resolution in the state legislative Assembly seeking the release of empirical data on the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) by the Centre for providing political reservation to the community in the local bodies in the state.
Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis raised a point of order. Jadhav, who was in the Speaker’s chair, allowed him to speak on the issue. However, as the BJP leader spoke, his party MLAs entered the Well of the House.
Amid the din, Jadhav asked Bhujbal to table the resolution. However, some BJP MLAs reached the Speaker’s podium and tried to pull up the mic and mace. While the resolution was passed amid the chaos, Jadhav adjourned the House for 10 minutes.
It was reported that miffed with the adjournment, Fadnavis and a group of legislators subsequently entered the speaker’s chamber and allegedly misbehaved and threatened Jadhav.
Reacting to the news, former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was quoted as saying to IndiaToday, “The government has created a story out of the incident and suspended 12 of our MLAs. Our MLAs didn’t abuse the Speaker. There were some heated arguments but our senior member Ashish Shelar on behalf of all MLAs apologised to the Speaker in-Chair Bhaskar Jadhav. Later, the government came up with this plan to suspend our MLAs. We will continue our fight.”
Following their suspension, the 12 BJP MLAs had met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and handed him over a memorandum requesting to seek a report from the government on it. The memorandum, signed by all 12 suspended MLAs, stated the action of suspension is not accepted by them and the false claim of using abusive language has been put on them.
With inputs from agencies
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