NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha Secretariat has issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs who have aligned with NCPI and sought their responses within seven days on petitions filed by TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee seeking their disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution that lays down the anti-defection framework.Dated Aug 25, the notices to the 20 rebel MPs forward a copy of Banerjee’s petition dated June 18 filed against the MPs under Rule 6 of the Members of Lok Sabha (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1985.In a post on X, TMC Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra shared the photo of one of the notices issued to rebel MPs and said, “Cover up caught out!” Highlighting that TMC had filed 20 disqualification petitions in June, Moitra said, “Speaker LS did nothing except give them better seats at our expense. SG Tushar Mehta in Court said the Speaker had issued notices. Notice dated Aug 25th -- exact date of hearing!”On Tuesday, Supreme Court sought a response from Lok Sabha Speaker’s office on time-bound adjudication of TMC’s petition seeking disqualification of rebel MPs who broke away from the party after its electoral debacle in West Bengal, even as Abhishek Banerjee accused Speaker Om Birla of “deliberate inaction”.The SC also issued notices to the 20 rebel MPs: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Satabdi Roy, Prasun Banerjee, Rachna Banerjee, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, Partha Bhowmick, Arup Chakraborty, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Sayani Ghosh, Bapi Haldar, Abu Teher Khan, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Asit Kumar Mal, June Maliah, Mitali Bag, Kalilur Rahaman, Mala Roy, Sharmila Sarkar and Yusuf Pathan.

In his petition, Abhishek Banerjee told the court on Tuesday that he had lodged the disqualification petition against the rebel MPs on June 18 and complained that despite the lapse of two months, no meaningful progress has been made on its adjudication.

The continuing delay in the adjudication process is impacting democratic governance, he said.In the recently concluded Monsoon session, Banerjee had met the Speaker on Aug 12 to reiterate his demand for a speedy decision on the disqualification petitions submitted to him in June. Banerjee had earlier met Birla on July 27 in Parliament urging him to expedite his decision on the pending petitions.