The Lok Sabha Secretariat has issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool MPs

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has issued formal notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs on disqualification petitions under the Anti-Dil Badal Act.
According to the sources, the secretariat has asked the MPs to respond within seven days. These notices issued on August 25 are very important in the ongoing political and legal dispute between the Trinamool Congress and its rebel faction of Lok Sabha MPs. The rebel MPs have defected from the party and joined the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The development comes a day after the Supreme Court heard a petition filed by Trinamool Congress leader and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Mr Banerjee had challenged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's delay and laziness on the June 18 disqualification petitions against rebel MPs.
According to a notice from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the MPs have been asked to speak under Rule 7(3) of the 'Members of the Lok Sabha (Disqualification on the Ground of Change of Heart) Rules, 1985'. These notices are issued in proceedings initiated under Rule VI of the same Code.
The notice said, "For the consideration of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, make your submissions under the relevant Rule 7(3) within seven days of receipt of this letter."
These notices have been issued to the MPs named in Mr. Banerjee's submissions. They include senior Trinamool leaders Sudeep Bandopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, along with former cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan and others.
The main point of contention is the rebel MPs' claim that they have legally joined a separate parliamentary faction linked to Tripura's Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and aligned themselves with the NDA. However, the Trinamool Congress has rejected the claim. It says that MPs have voluntarily given up party membership, hence they are disqualified under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Tenth Schedule (Anti-defection Law) covers the disqualification of legislators and members of parliament in specified circumstances. It also includes the situation when a member voluntarily leaves the membership of the political party on whose ticket he won the election. It also has provisions relating to mergers, under which mergers are protected from disqualification if the statutory conditions are met. Therefore, the main question in the proceeding before the Speaker will be whether this new coalition of rebel MPs is a legally valid merger or a change of heart from the Trinamool.
Sources say that the issuance of notices does not mean that the MPs have been deemed to have had a change of heart or are ineligible. This is a procedure that allows MPs to present their position to the Speaker before the motions are decided.
This new development is extremely important, as the Speaker's power to decide disqualification cases under the Tenth Schedule has come under judicial scrutiny, especially when there are allegations of delay in disposing of petitions.
Mr. Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court alleging that the disqualification petitions against 20 MPs had not been processed within the stipulated time. The court's intervention has drawn attention to the issue and the Speaker's constitutional and procedural responsibility in dealing with petitions.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghosh has welcomed the issuance of these notices. He described it as an important step after the institutional delay.
Ms. Ghosh wrote on X, "After the Supreme Court's intervention, the Lok Sabha Speaker finally issued notices to 20 'traitors'. These 20 traitors should be disqualified for flagrant violation of the Constitution."
The Trinamool Congress has been consistently arguing that this move by the rebel MPs is an open desertion of the party, on whose electoral symbol they contested and won. The party says that joining or claiming merger with another political organization does not remove the anti-defection rules. On the other hand, the rebel MPs say that their political change has a legal basis and their affiliation with the NCPI as well as the NDA should be seen under the Tenth Schedule merger rules.
The conflict will also affect the political balance and numerical strength in the Lok Sabha. If these 20 MPs are disqualified, the Trinamool's membership numbers and the balance of power in the House could be affected. The actual outcome, however, will depend on the Speaker's final decision and possible court action. Currently, the next step is for the 20 rebel MPs to file their response within the seven-day deadline given by the Lok Sabha Secretariat. The Speaker will study these responses before deciding on the disqualification petitions. The entire proceeding is being watched closely, as it not only hinges on the future of the 20 MPs, but also on the interpretation of the anti-switch law, the scope of the merger regulation and the Lok Sabha Speaker's constitutional role in deciding switch claims.