The Supreme Court has instructed the speaker of the Maharashtra legislative assembly to reply on a plea to expeditiously decide on the disqualification petitions pending against Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the two factions of the Shiv Sena.
A Bench comprising of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud along with Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Manoj Misra have issued notice returnable in two weeks.
A plea had been filed by an MLA of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the party, when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs, including Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal, have joined the Eknath Shinde faction
In his plea,Prabhu has highlighted that this year on May 11, the Supreme Court Constitution Bench directed the Speaker to decide on the pending disqualification petitions within a reasonable period but so far no such step have been taken.
As per the plea, the constitutional requirement of fairness requires the Speaker to decide on the question of disqualification in an expeditious manner.
The MLA has contended that the inaction in the part of Speaker in deciding the disqualification proceedings was an act of constitutional impropriety.
The Supreme Court’s May 11 judgment had its genesis in the split of the Shiv Sena political party into two factions.
Shinde went on to replace Thackeray as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister after the split in June
After the split the MLAs of the Shinde faction received disqualification notices from the then Deputy Speaker for acting against the party whip while voting in the Member of Legislative Council (MLC) elections in the State.
The Apex Court was called to consider whether rebel members should be disqualified.
The court had last year on June 27 granted interim relief to Shinde and his rebel group of MLAs by extending the time to file responses to the disqualification notices sent by the Deputy Speaker, till July 12.
Subsequently, the Court on June 29, 2022, also gave the go-ahead to a floor test called for by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
This led to the fall of the Thackeray government, following which Shinde took oath as Chief Minister with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the single largest party in the provess