Will the Lok Sabha Speaker be given a deadline? That question waits for another day: the Abhishek Banerjee plea on the disqualification of 20 Trinamool Congress MPs was not taken up by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, and the position from the September hearing is unchanged.
New Delhi: The Abhishek Banerjee plea, a writ petition by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee that asks for a direction to the Lok Sabha Speaker to decide within a fixed time the petitions for disqualification of 20 TMC MPs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, was not heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 [Abhishek Banerjee v. Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha and Others].
Listed before a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, the matter was not reached. No order on the merits of the plea was passed.
Where things stood after September 23
At the hearing on September 23, 2026, Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay, appearing for Banerjee, submitted that the MPs had not filed replies before the Speaker within the time first allowed and had asked for more time. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta responded that the Speaker acts as a Tribunal performing a constitutional function, that there had been no inordinate delay, and that the Court should not lay down a time limit. For the MPs, Senior Advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Maninder Singh said there was no case for judicial interference and that their clients would file replies within four weeks.
The Bench did not fix a deadline. Orally, it observed that the Speaker was expected to decide the petitions expeditiously, and Justice Bagchi described the time already taken as a “red flag”. The Court asked the Solicitor General to return with a proposed timeline and kept the petition pending.
A split in the party, and a plea in the Supreme Court
The petition grows out of a split in the TMC’s parliamentary party, in which 20 of its Lok Sabha MPs sought to break away and align with another party. Banerjee filed disqualification petitions against them before the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule, the Constitution’s anti-defection provisions, and then approached the Supreme Court for a time-bound decision on those petitions.
The Court issued notice to the 20 MPs on Banerjee’s plea on August 25, 2026. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta then told the Court that the Speaker had already issued notices in the disqualification proceedings.
What the law says about timelines
Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule makes the Speaker the authority that decides whether a member of the House has incurred disqualification on the ground of defection. In Keisham Meghachandra Singh v. Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly (2020), the Supreme Court held that the Speaker, acting as a Tribunal, should ordinarily decide such petitions within three months. Applying that norm in Padi Kaushik Reddy v. State of Telangana (2025), the Court directed the Telangana Assembly Speaker to decide the petitions against 10 BRS MLAs within three months.
Whether the 20 MPs have incurred disqualification, or whether their conduct falls outside the Tenth Schedule, is yet to be decided by the Speaker. The competing claims are untested, and this report expresses no view on them.
The plea will return on a later date, when the Court is expected to hear the Solicitor General on how the proceedings before the Speaker have moved.
Case Title: Abhishek Banerjee v. Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha and Others [W.P.(C) No. 1033/2026]
Bench: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana
Date: October 27, 2026 (not taken up)
Appearances (earlier hearings): Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay for the petitioner; Solicitor General Tushar Mehta; Senior Advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Maninder Singh for the MPs concerned.