JUDGMENT

Altamas Kabir, J. —

1. These two writ petitions have been taken up together to consider whether Rule should be issued as identical issues have been raised in both the matters and identical relief has also been sought for.

2. Both the writ petitioners were formerly members of the Samajwadi Party, of which Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav is the President. While Shri Amar Singh was one of the senior-most members of the party and had also held the post of All India General Secretary and was its National Spokesperson and had also been a Member of the Rajya Sabha for three terms, Ms. Jaya Pradha is also a prominent political leader who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the State of Uttar Pradesh and was elected for a Second Term to the Lok Sabha as a Member of the Samajwadi Party. Earlier, she had also been a Member of the Rajya Sabha from the said party.

3. In addition to the above, Shri Amar Singh is also a member of four different Parliamentary Committees and Ms. Jaya Pradha is a member of one such Committee.

4. The case made out by Shri Amar Singh is that on account of medical reasons and other personal difficulties he was constrained to resign from the posts of General Secretary and National Spokesman of the Samajwadi Party on 6th January, 2010. He, however, continued to be a member of the party till he was expelled therefrom on 2nd February, 2010. Thereafter, he was treated as an Independent Member of Parliament (MP) which will be evident from a glance at the alphabetical list of Members of the Rajya Sabha maintained by Parliament, produced on Shri Amar Singh’s behalf.

5. The common case of both the writ petitioners is that they have had to approach this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution in view of the imminent threat to their continuance as Members of Parliament, both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, in view of the decision of this Court in the case of G. Viswanathan vs. Hon’ble Speaker Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Madras & Anr.1 [(1996) 2 SCC 353].

6. In the said case this Court was called upon to consider, inter alia, the effect of paragraph 2(1)(a) and Explanation (a) thereto in the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution of India with regard to members of political parties who are expelled therefrom and have not voluntarily given up their membership of such political party. What also fell for consideration is Explanation (a) which provides that for the purposes of paragraph 2(1) an elected Member of a House shall be deemed to belong to the political party, if any, by which he was set up as a candidate for election as such Member.

7. In considering the said question, this Court held that in view of the Explanation to Paragraph 2(1)of the Tenth Schedule, even if a member is expelled from his party, for the purposes of the Tenth Schedule, he/she would not cease to be a member of the political party that had set him up as a candidate for the election and he would continue to remain attached to that political party even if he is treated as “unattached”.

8. This Court, inter alia, held that when a person who has been thrown out or expelled from the party which set up him as a candidate and was ultimately elected, joins another party, it would certainly amount to his voluntary abandonment of the membership of the political party which had set him up as a candidate for election as such Member. It was held that if he, on his own volition, joined another political party, he must be taken to have acquired the membership of the other political party by abandoning the political party to which he belonged or must be deemed to have belonged under the Explanation to Paragraph 2(1) of the Tenth Schedule.

9. It was further held that Paragraph (1)(b) of the Tenth Schedule cannot be read in isolation and had to be read with Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 thereof. It was also observed that Paragraph 2(1) read with the Explanation clearly pointed out that an elected Member would continue to belong to that political party by which he was set up