The Supreme Court on Monday directed Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar to hear the disqualification petitions following the Shiv Sena split within a week. Peeved over the delay in a decision on the disqualification proceedings on the part of the Speaker, a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the Speaker cannot continue to drag its feet in the matter.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction urging it to direct the Speaker to take an early decision on 34 disqualification petitions, seeking the disqualification of 56 MLAs, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
In its ruling on May 11, the court had asked the Maharashtra Speaker to decide on the disqualification proceedings “within a reasonable period of time”. During the hearing today, the bench warned Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Narwekar to decide on the petition.
“Mr SG, he has to decide. He can’t do this. What did the Speaker do after the May 11 judgment by court?” the court asked. “We direct that (the) Speaker shall hear the matter (of disqualification) no later than a period of one week,” the top court ordered.
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Reminding the Speaker that his office had to honour the dignity of the Supreme Court and follow its verdict, the apek court directed Narwekar to spell out the timeline within a week for adjudication of the disqualification petitions filed against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs loyal to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.
“We expect deference and dignity to the directions issued by the Supreme Court,” the bench said and listed the plea by Shiv Sena (UBT) faction seeking disqualification of Shinde and other Shiv Sena MLAs supporting him after two weeks.
The speaker is a “tribunal under the tenth schedule of the Constitution”, and as a tribunal, he is amenable to the court’s jurisdiction, the bench said, adding nothing has been done about the pending disqualification petitions after the May 11 judgment.
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“We now direct that the procedural directions shall be issued by the speaker within a week setting out a timeline to complete the proceedings. The solicitor general shall inform the court about the timeline being set for disposing of the proceedings,” the bench said.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction had moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner expeditiously.
The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex court.
(With PTI inputs)