Rebel TMC-turned-NCPI MPs Seek Three-Week Extension in Disqualification Case

New Delhi: Rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC)-turned-Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday (September 1) that 20 Lok Sabha MPs who left the TMC and joined the newly formed NCPI have asked for an additional three weeks to respond to disqualification notices issued by Speaker Om Birla.

PTI reported citing sources that the Lok Sabha Secretariat had issued notices to the 20 breakaway MPs on August 26 giving them a week to reply to disqualification petitions filed by TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee.

The notices, dated August 25, were accompanied by a copy of Banerjee's original petition, which was filed on June 18.

“We got a letter from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on August 26 seeking our reply regarding Abhishek Banerjee's letter to the Lok Sabha speaker requesting cancellation of the membership of 20 NCPI MPs. We have written to the Lok Sabha Secretariat seeking a time of three weeks to reply,” Bandyopadhyay, who serves as the NCPI's floor leader in the Lok Sabha, was quoted as saying by PTI.

Another NCPI MP told the news agency that the group has been consulting legal counsel suggesting the rebels are building a comprehensive case.

Also read: Explained: The Anti-Defection Law, Exodus of TMC MPs and MLAs and Constitutional Cases

On August 25, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Banerjee's plea seeking early decision by the Lok Sabha speaker on disqualification petitions against the rebel MPs.

A three-judge bench comprising of Chief Justice Surya Kant along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the 20 MPs and instructed that the matter be handled without delay.

Banerjee had also filed separate petitions before the speaker in June seeking disqualification of the rebel TMC MPs.

On June 14, after meeting Lok Sabha speaker Birla, the rebel TMC MPs announced that they will be merging with a little-known regional party named the NCPI in a bid to avoid disqualification under anti-defection law.

As The Wire reported, NCPI was formed in late 2022 and the party last contested three seats in the 2023 Tripura assembly elections.

Explaining the anti-defection law, former secretary general of Lok Sabha P.D.T. Achary wrote on The Wire, "There is a lot of confusion created by some veteran and not-so-veteran defectors that if two-thirds of MPs or MLAs merge with another party they will not be disqualified under Para 4 of the 10th Schedule. This para can exempt an MP or MLA only if their original party merges with another party and two third of the MPs or MLAs agree with the merger and become members of the other party."

"It must be understood that the merger is of the original political party and not of MPs or MLAs. They can only agree with the merger. Most of the MPs and MLAs of the TMC who have rolled up their sleeves to jump ship should read what the Supreme Court has said in Dr. Mahachandra Prasad Singh vs Chairman, Bihar Legislative Council (2004) and Subhash Desai (SUPRA)," he added.

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