SC rejects plea of 2 rebel Congress MLAs of Arunachal Pradesh

The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea of two rebel Congress MLAs of Arunachal Pradesh against a Gauhati High Court decision upholding the action of then assembly speaker Nabam Rebia to accept their resignations.
"The resignation letters bear your signatures and moreover, why did you (MLAs) keep quiet for almost 10 days (after submitting their resignation)," a bench comprising Justices A R Dave and Adarsh Kumar Goel said while rejecting the appeals of MLAs Wanglam Sawin and Gabriel D Wangsu.
The bench did not concur with the submissions of senior advocate L Nageshwar Rao, appearing for the two rebel MLAs, that the Speaker should have conducted an inquiry after he received their resignation letters, saying their letters are "irrevocable" as if they were executing a Will.

"I have never seen such kind of resignation letters in my whole life where the maker cannot take it back. The language of the resignation letters warranted an inquiry by the Speaker. The letters were written under duress and coercion," Rao said.
The apex court, however, said the letters bore their signatures and moreover, there was a delay in raising the issue before the Speaker.
"All this can be said when the letters do not bear your signatures. We do not know as to whether it was part of any political strategy," the court said, adding "the Speaker cannot reject resignation letter without inquiry and no such inquiry is needed for accepting (them)."

The senior lawyer then drew the attention of the bench on the contents of the letters and asked whether an MLA can write that he is resigning "irrevocably" as the letter said "I have not lived up to the expectations of my people and therefore don't deserve to continue with this post and responsibility".

The bench then remarked "Politicians can do anything."
"After all, the politicians are also human beings," Rao replied, adding that 17 rebel Congress MLAs were forced to write letters on September 16 last year at a legislature party meeting held at the behest of then Chief Minister Nabam Tuki.

Sawin and Wangsu represented Khonsa East and Kanubari
assembly constituencies in the state and were among the rebel Congress MLAs opposed to Tuki.
It has been alleged by these MLAs that on September 16 last year, they were coerced to write the resignation letters at a Congress Legislature Party get-together.
The resignation letters were allegedly handed over to the Speaker by the Whip of Congress Party later and were accepted on September 30 last year.
On October one, the state assembly declared their seats vacant in pursuance of the acceptance of their resignations.
Five days later, the MLAs allegedly wrote to the Assembly Secretariat asking the Speaker not to accept their resignations.

The MLAs then approached the Gauhati High Court which upheld the decision of the Speaker to accept their resignations.