If TMC splits, speaker's role key in recognising 'real party'

NEW DELHI: As Trinamool Congress stares at its biggest crisis with a faction claiming the support of 58 of 80 MLAs, the role of the West Bengal assembly speaker will be decisive in recognising one camp as the "original party" - as happened in the case of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

The Constitution's Tenth Schedule bars the "constitutional sin" of defection. After the deletion of 'Paragraph 3' from the schedule in 2003, the defence of 'split' is no longer available to members facing disqualification proceedings. Hence, in cases where a split has occurred in a political or legislature party, neither faction can validly claim they are the "original party" in the event that each files a petition for disqualification of the other's members.

While hearing Shiv Sena's plea, Supreme Court had said, "Regardless of the defence available to members who face disqualification proceedings, the speaker may be called upon to determine who the 'real' political party is while adjudicating disqualification petitions under Paragraph 2(1)(a) where two or more factions of the political or legislature party have arisen."

"The effect of the deletion of Paragraph 3 is that both factions cannot be considered to constitute the original political party. In order to determine which (if any) of the members of the party have voluntarily given up membership of the political party under Paragraph 2(1)(a), it is necessary to first determine wh-ich of the factions constitute the political party," it said.

The speaker must consider the constitution of the party as well as any other rules and regulations which specify the structure of its leadership, SC had said. "If the rival groups submit two or more versions of the party constitution, the speaker must consider the version which was submitted to EC before the rival factions emerged. In other words, the speaker must consider the version of the party constitution which was submitted to EC with the consent of both factions," SC had said, adding that this would obviate a situation where both factions attempt to amend the constitution to serve their own ends.

SC had further added that the speaker must not base the decision on a "blind appreciation" of which group had the majority in the assembly. "This is not a game of numbers, but of something more. The structure of leadership outside the legislative assembly is a consideration which is relevant to the determination of this issue," it had said.