India, Aug. 26 -- Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has issued notices to 20 rebel Trinamool Congress MPs on disqualification petitions filed against them, asking them to respond within seven days, hours after the Supreme Court issued notices to the same MPs in a related plea.

The development comes after TMC general secretary and Lok Sabha leader Abhishek Banerjee moved the Supreme Court seeking a time-bound decision from Birla on the disqualification petitions, which had been pending since the rebellion broke out within the party's parliamentary wing.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, issued notices to the 20 MPs on Tuesday, and observed that the matter was "not a question of issuing notice...