PoliticsCourts
Supreme Court gives Madhya Pradesh Speaker two months to decide on Nirmala Sapre's disqualification
The court said a defection petition cannot be left undecided just because there is no hurry, after Congress leader Umang Singhar's plea against the Bina MLA sat with the Speaker for more than two years.
Key points
- The Supreme Court told the Madhya Pradesh Speaker to decide the plea within two months.
- Umang Singhar's petition against Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre has been pending since July 2024.
- The court took no view on whether Sapre is disqualified; that is for the Speaker.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly to decide within two months whether Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre should be disqualified for defecting from the Congress.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order on a plea by Umang Singhar, the Congress Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. His petition under the anti-defection law has been with the Speaker since July 2024.
Sapre won Bina, in Sagar district, on a Congress ticket in the 2023 Assembly election, her first term. Singhar’s petition says that in May 2024, during the Lok Sabha campaign, she appeared on a BJP stage with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and announced she would join the ruling party. Sapre denies this. She says she never resigned from the Congress or formally joined the BJP, and still calls herself a Congress member.
Appearing for Singhar, senior advocate Vivek Tankha told the bench: “This is a classic case of 10th schedule.” He argued that the MLA had left the party and was campaigning for the other side, while the Speaker had not even begun proceedings.
Why the High Court was overruled
Singhar came to the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh High Court refused to order a time-bound decision. It found no urgency, since proceedings were under way and Sapre denied switching parties.
The bench disagreed with that approach. It said petitions under the Tenth Schedule must be decided quickly even when there is no immediate urgency and plenty of time is left in the Assembly’s term. It relied on its ruling in the Padi Kaushik Reddy case, in which it set a deadline for the Telangana Speaker to decide defection petitions.
The Sapre defection case
- 2023Sapre wins Bina on a Congress ticket
- May 2024She appears at a BJP event with Chief Minister Mohan Yadav
- July 2024Singhar files the disqualification petition
- 4 Nov 2026Supreme Court gives the Speaker two months to decide
The court did not rule on whether Sapre is disqualified. That question stays with the Speaker, who must decide it on the material before him.