House can’t expel Amar Singh, Jaya Prada: Supreme Court

Members of parliament Amar Singh and Jaya Prada, who have been disqualified by Samajwadi Party, got relief on Monday as the Supreme Court (SC) protected them from being expelled from parliament if they defied their parent party’s command.

Following the judgment, both MPs are free to vote and air their views on the floor of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph has referred their petition to the chief justice for setting up a larger bench to consider whether SC’s 1996 judgment had correctly interpreted the anti-defection law in holding that a disqualified party lawmaker continues to be under the thumb of the party that nominated him.

Singh and Jaya Prada were expelled from SP for their alleged anti-party activities in February. They have been declared unattached parliamentarians after their expulsion.

They apprehend forfeiture of their membership of the Parliament if they defy party whip or join any other party.

Singh’s lawyer Harish Salve said the consequences of what had been propounded in G Viswanathan’s case (in SC’s 1996 judgment) would have dangerous portents if a member, properly elected   by   the   voters   of   a   particular   constituency, was deprived of his membership of the House merely on the whims   and fancies of the leaders of his party even though he may not have voluntarily resigned from it.

Jaya Prada’s counsel KK Venugopal submitted that on account of the decision in G Viswanathan’s case, even an expelled member stood   exposed to the party whip in the House.

Sharing concerns expressed by their counsel, the bench said it was convinced that the decision in G Viswanathan’s case “merits another look” into the lawmakers’ case who are expelled from the parties under whose banner they had been elected to the House, as they would be “left vulnerable to the whims and fancies of the leaders of their parties”.