The Supreme Court has granted the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker time till December 31, 2023 and January 31, 2024, respectively, for deciding the disqualification petitions filed in relation to rift in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, passed the order, while hearing writ petitions seeking expeditious decision by the Speaker on the disqualification petitions filed respectively against the Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions.
The petition was filed by Sunil Prabhu, member of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) and Jayant Patil, member of NCP (Sharad Pawar).
The Bench expressed displeasure at the stand of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker that he required time till February 29, 2024 to decide the disqualification petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions in relation to the rift in Shiv Sena party.
The Cji, while expressing surprise over the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s attitude, said that he was now seeking time till February 29 to decide on the disqualification petitions.
The CJI had earlier pulled up the Speaker for delaying hearing in the matter
Appearing for Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, contended that the proceedings would be completed by January 31.
The CJI ruled that the Speaker has to decide and finish the matter by December 31. He said the proceedings could not ‘wrangle on’ until the elections were announced.
The CJI pointed out that the Constitution Bench judgment in the Shiv Sena case was delivered in May this year and the incidents took place in July, 2022.
The Solicitor General, while citing the impending Diwali vacations and the Winter Session of the Assembly, said that it would be unrealistic to expect a decision before January 31.
However, the Bench was firm in its view that the proceedings should be completed before December 31 and passed an order in that regard. As regards the NCP rift, the Court granted time to the Speaker till January 31.
When Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Ajit Pawar faction, protested against giving a deadline for NCP matter by saying that the petitions were filed only in July and September this year, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal (representing the Sharad Pawar group) said that only the petitions filed against nine NCP MLAs in July this year be considered at this stage.
The Apex Court said that it would record Sibal’s statement for Group B (NCP). It said at this stage, it was only concerned about the petitions filed in July. As far as the group B petitions were concerned, the disqualification issue was confined only to issues filed in July, added the Apex Court.
The Uddhav Thackeray group was Senior Advocates Sibal and Devadatt Kamat appeared for the Uddhav Thackeray group and the Sharad Pawar group.
The Ajit Pawar group was represented by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, while Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul represented the Eknath Shinde group.
In the last hearing, the court had granted a “final opportunity” to the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for laying down an appropriate schedule for expeditious hearing of the disqualification petitions.