The court emphasized that only genuine and voluntary resignations can be accepted by the Speaker, and failure to investigate claims of coercion prior to acceptance is a fundamental flaw. This establishes the Speaker’s duty to verify the authenticity before acceptance.

JUDGMENT

A. Bimol Singh, J.:--

[1] Heard Mr. HS. Paonam, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. A. Arunkumar, Adv., Mr. M. Hemchandra, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Md. Juno Rahman, Adv., and Dr. RK. Deepak, learned Advocate appearing for the petitioners. Heard also Mr. Kapil Sibal, learned Senior Advocate, Mr. N. Ibotombi, learned Senior Advocate, Mr. S.G. Hasnain, learned Senior Advocate assisted by Syed Md. Fazal, learned Advocate appearing for Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee through its General Secretary, Mr. S. Chitaranjan Singh, learned Advocate appearing for the Speaker and Secretary, Manipur Legislative Assembly and Mr. Kh. Samarjit, learned Advocate appearing for the Election Commission of India. None appeared for the other private respondents despite service of notice upon them.

[2] The petitioners filed the present 3(three) writ petitions challenging the Bulletin Part-II bearing No. 36, 37 and 38 all dated 18.06.2020 issued by the Secretary, Manipur Legislative Assembly, publishing the acceptance of the resignation tendered by the petitioners from being a member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly and also notifying the vacancy of 3(three) Assembly Constituencies, viz., 57-Henglep (ST), 21-Naoriya Pakhanglakpa and 53-Tamenglong (ST) consequent upon the resignation of the petitioners, coupled with a prayer for issuing a writ of mandamus directing the Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly to consider/revoke the acceptance of resignation tendered by the petitioners from being a member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

As the facts and question of laws raised in the present 3(three) writ petitions are common, all the 3(three) writ petitions were jointly heard and being disposed of by this common judgment and order.

[3] The case of the petitioners in a nut-shell is that the petitioners contested in the 11th General Election of Manipur Legislative Assembly held in 2017 as BJP candidates and they were elected as members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly from 57-Henglep (ST), 53-Tamenglong (ST) and 21-Naoriya Pakhanglakpa Assembly Constituencies as BJP candidates. Thereafter, all the petitioners along with other elected candidates were sworn in as members of the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly on 19.03.2017 by the Protem Speaker.

[4] It has been stated that for the last about 6(six) months to 1(one) year prior to their tendering resignation, the petitioners felt that they have been sidelined by the present BJP led coalition Government by giving more importance to some other aspiring candidates who belonged to other parties in taking up welfare activities in their respective Assembly Constituencies and as such,there were lot of discontentment among the party members of their respective constituencies. It has also been stated that during the political turmoil in the present BJP led Government and just before the Rajya Sabha election scheduled to be held on 19.06.2020, the petitioners were pressurised to resign from BJP by some influential party workers who felt that their Assembly Constituencies have been neglected and ignored in order to give a wrong image to the voters of the said constituencies regarding the capability of the petitioners as leaders of their respective constituencies. Having no other alternative and under threat and pressure of