Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday granted time till September 22 to 20 MPs of the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) to respond to notices issued to them following disqualification petitions filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) under the anti-defection law.
The extension was granted after the NCPI MPs sought more time to respond to the notices issued by Birla on August 26. The notices had initially given them seven days to submit their replies, reported news agency PTI, citing Parliament sources.
Birla had issued the notices after TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee filed petitions seeking the disqualification of the 20 MPs.
The MPs had quit the TMC in June following the party's defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections and joined the relatively little-known NCPI. They have subsequently announced their allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA.
The Speaker's decision came days after the Supreme Court agreed to hear Abhishek Banerjee's plea seeking an expeditious decision on the disqualification petitions.
On August 25, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices to the 20 MPs and directed that the proceedings before the Speaker be dealt with expeditiously.
Abhishek Banerjee had approached the Supreme Court after filing separate petitions before the Speaker in June, seeking action against the MPs who had left the TMC and aligned themselves with the NCPI.
The additional time gives the rebel MPs more room to prepare their responses as they consider the legal and political implications of the proceedings, sources said. The MPs are also understood to be seeking legal advice on the applicability of anti-defection provisions to their case.
The dispute over the 20 Lok Sabha MPs is the latest flashpoint in the wider organisational rupture within the TMC following its defeat in the West Bengal polls.
The dissident camp has also sought to demonstrate its support among the party's elected representatives in the state Assembly. As many as 65 of the TMC's 80 MLAs had backed Ritabrata Banerjee's claim to the Leader of the Opposition's post, rejecting the nominee supported by the Mamata Banerjee camp.
The 20 MPs' move to the NCPI and subsequent alignment with the NDA has now turned the TMC's internal power struggle into a wider legal and political battle over the party's representation in Parliament.