India: Speaker Seeks Views and Legal Opinion on Parliament Matter

According to sources, the Speaker's office has also sent an email to Mamata Banerjee's faction, seeking their views on the entire matter. Sources say that a decision on this will be taken before the monsoon session of Parliament. Speaker Om Birla is likely to seek written legal opinion from the Union Law Ministry on the matter. The Law Ministry will consult senior law officers of the country (government lawyers) for this. This is being done so that the Speaker's decision is legally strong enough not to be overruled if it is later challenged in court. Meanwhile, legal and constitutional experts have started raising questions on the TMC rebels'move.