‘Deposit Rs 10 lakh,’ Bombay HC tells BJP leader as precondition to hear PIL

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Through the amended rules, the “secret ballot” system for the election has been replaced with an “open” voting system, the PILs said.

The state’s ruling MVA government had said that the amendments were proposed by the rules committee in accordance with similar rules existing in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and legislative assemblies of a few other states.

The post of the Assembly Speaker fell vacant in February last year after Nana Patole resigned from the post and became the state Congress president. The state government has proposed to hold the elections to the post of the Speaker on March 9 and has sought the go-ahead of the Governor in this regard.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni representing the state government opposed the pleas and raised the preliminary objection on the maintainability of the same stating that both were filed with “gross delay” and were “politically-motivated”.

He submitted that as per Article 178 of the Constitution, the members of the assembly “choose” the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker and do not “elect” them, therefore it will fall under the category of “indirect election” and therefore the decision was justified.

Kumbhakoni alleged that Mahajan’s plea was a “copy-paste” petition and was filed only after the court on February 28 directed Vyas to deposit an amount of Rs 2 lakh as a precondition to hear the plea as per Bombay High Court PIL Rules.

Advocate Abhinav Chandrachud appearing for Vyas submitted that the Chief Minister alone does not have right to advise the Governor but the opinion of the council of ministers has to be taken into consideration, therefore the decision was unconstitutional.

CJ Datta orally observed, “Governor has to act on aid and advice of the council of ministers. But this is only pertaining to executive functions. How can you extend this to legislative procedures? Qua legislature, Governor’s powers are circumcised? The Governor is respected and honoured only because of his position…Why should we read something to denude the CM of his powers? We have to respect the other wing. We cannot keep interfering in the functions of the legislature.”

The court also said that the petitions failed to make appropriate authorities parties in the case and expressed displeasure over the delay with which the pleas were filed.

“Petition must be of such a degree that it subserves conscience that something wrong is happening. Who are you? How is choosing a Speaker in public interest? We need to be the guardians of people’s rights and if it is about personal liberty, lives are being lost, then yes, we will intervene but this doesn’t not send the right message. Why this political battle here in the High Court? We know who is behind this. Jethmalani’s client was sitting on the fence for so long,” the bench orally remarked.

“Prima facie, we are inclined to view that approach made by petitioner, a sitting MLA, at the eleventh hour raises suspicion about his bonafide,” the court noted. The High Court will hear the pleas again on March 8.