New Delhi, Sept. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Monday said that the West Bengal Assembly speaker has time till October 8 to decide on the disqualification petitions filed against 10 Trinamool Congress legislators observing that its 2020 decision requires the Speaker to decide on such pleas within three months. Noting that the disqualification pleas against the 10 MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee were filed on July 8, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said, "This court in Keisham Meghachandra Singh v Speaker, Manipur Legislative Assembly (2020) has held that in deciding disqualification petitions, the Speaker acts as a tribunal and such power is to be exercised within a reasonable period." That decision had laid down a period of three months for the Manipur Speaker to decide the pending disqualification pleas. Applying this decision to the facts of the present case, the bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, noted that the disqualification petitions were filed on July 8 and the three-month period will expire on October 8. The court held, "We have no reason to believe that the Speaker is fully cognisant of the principles laid down by this court and shall make all endeavours to take an appropriate decision within the said time period." The order was passed on a petition filed by All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) legislator Sohandeb Chattopadhyay who moved the disqualification pleas under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution against the 10 rebel MLAs. Besides Ritabrata Banerjee, the other rebel MLAs include Arup Roy, Firhad Hakim, Sandipan Saha, Akhuruzzaman Ansari, Shiuli Saha, Sabina Yasmin, Biplab Mitra, Javed Khan and Rathin Ghosh. Chattopadhyay was represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal who urged the court to keep the matter pending. He said that this issue is arising in many cases and there is need to synchronise the proceedings pending before the Speaker with that of the EC. But the bench said, "There are so many proceedings where the judiciary is to comply with timelines for passing decisions which we are gloriously in breach of." Chattopadhyay sought the court's intervention to direct the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions expeditiously. The court told Sibal that the 2020 decision takes care of the relief sought by the petitioner and disposed of the matter....