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A Manipur High Court order had upheld the order of the Manipur Legislative Assembly, disqualifying Kshetrimayum Biren Singh, Yengkhom Surchandra Singh and Sanasam Bira Singh, who allegedly joined hands with the Ruling Party for strengthening coalition Govt. led by BJP. 

Supreme Court bench of Justices UU Lalit, Ravindra S Bhat & Bela M Trivedi has set aside the order of the Speaker of disqualification.

Three MLAs from Manipur had approached Supreme Court challenging a decision of the Manipur High Court which had upheld the Manipur Assembly Speaker's decision to disqualify them for defecting from the Indian National Congress (INC) and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

SK Bhattacharya, Advocate, appearing for the MLAs submitted that these appeals challenge the order of the Manipur High Court dated 2nd June 2021. He submitted that in the elections to the 11th Manipur general assembly in 2017, the petitioner was elected from 7-Lamlai constituency of Manipur as a candidate of the Congress.

He further submitted that on 7th December 2017, a petition under 2(1)(a) read with Article 191 of the Constitution was filed by some people who claimed to be electors seeking disqualification of these MLAs on the ground that he had given up his membership of inc and joined BJP.

It was submitted that the petition was premised on certain reports in local news papers to the effect that the petitioner in a reception ceremony. It was further submitted that  another petition was filed by 2 electors on 7th February 2018 from  8-Lamlai seeking disqualification. Bhattacharya further submitted that these were followed by a 3rd petition on 26th November 2019.

It was further submitted that these matters were posted for hearing before Speaker of the Assembly and were directed to be taken up on 22nd June 2020. It was argued that communications were addressed to the petitioners stating that the hearing for the matters  pertaining to disqualification were preponed to 18th June.

Despite none of the MLAs being present or being represented befor the Speaker, by an order dated 18th June 2020 allowed the disqualifications which and held that the petitioners had given up their membership of Congress.The order of the Speaker was challenged before the Manipur High Court, however the High Court upheld the order. It was submitted that the present petition is an appeal against the order of the High Court.

The court on hearing the parties held that it was clear that petitions for disqualification were to be taken up for hearing on 18th June 2020 but were for some reason advanced to 22nd June 2020. The court further held that there was no record to indicate why the hearing was advanced. The court further opined that a matter such as this requires a proper hearing and adducing of evidence.

The court allowed the appeal, set aside order of Speaker and High Court. The court further restored the question of disqualification to the file of the speaker. The court held that since the disqualification has been set aside, till the matter pertaining to disqualification is disposed by the speakers the petitioners are permitted to represent their electorate. 

Case title: SHRI KSHETRIMAYUM BIREN SINGH Versus THE HONBLE SPEAKER MANIPUR LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY & ORS