Uddhav Sena moves Supreme Court seeking expeditious decision on disqualification of rebel MLAs

Shiv Sena (UBT) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to direct the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against the rebel legislators led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

On May 11, the Supreme Court asked the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, Rahul Narwekar, to decide the fate of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, who were accused of anti-party activities.

The plea filed by Sunil Prabhu, Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA, stated that though the Supreme Court in its May 11 judgment had asked the Speaker to decide the pending disqualification petitions within a reasonable period, no step was taken in this regard. Prabhu said he had already submitted three representations to the Speaker, but to no avail.

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The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government — comprising the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — collapsed last year after a revolt against Uddhav Thackeray by Eknath Shinde. The move resulted in a split in the Shiv Sena. Eknath Shinde became the Maharashtra Chief Minister with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

In the matter pertaining to the Shiv Sena rift, on May 11, the apex court held that it could order the restoration of the Uddhav Thackeray government as Thackeray had resigned without facing a floor test. Further, the SC refused to use its powers under Article 226 and Article 32 in the matter and stated, “There are no extraordinary circumstances in the instant case that warrant the exercise of jurisdiction by the court to adjudicate the disqualification petition.”

Accordingly, the court had handed over the decision of determining the disqualification petitions to the Speaker.

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Maharashtra Speaker to decide on rebel NCP MLAs disqualification plea

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Monday said that he had received nearly seven petitions both from the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) pertaining to issues such as the appointment of the party’s leader and chief whip in the state Assembly, among others.

The Sharad Pawar faction has also handed over a letter to Maharashtra’s speaker seeking disqualification of nine rebel MLAs for “indulging in anti-party activities”.

On the specific questions about the disqualification plea moved by the Sharad Pawar camp, Rahul Narwekar said, “There is a procedure laid down. I will go into the merits of that petition and will check whether they procedurally comply or not, then I will follow the process. The claims made in the petition will have to be studied.”