Maha MLAs’ disqualification row: SC to hear pleas seeking expeditious decision by Speaker on Monday

New Delhi:  The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the pleas seeking an expeditious decision by the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in the disqualification proceedings against Shiv Sena MLAs on Monday.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will preside over the proceedings.

The petition filed by NCP leader Jayant Patil (Sharad Pawar faction) seeking decision on defection petitions is also listed along with Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu’s (Uddhav Thackeray faction) plea for hearing on Monday.

On October 17, the top court had given Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekara final opportunity to provide a realistic schedule for deciding the pending defection petitions filed by the two rival factions of the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde against each other.

A bench headed by the CJI had accepted the submission of Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who assured the court that he would personally engage with the Speaker during the Dussehra vacation.

After Mehta sought more time from the court for the Speaker to decide the timeline, the CJI pulled up Mehta on the Speaker’s recent interview.

Narwekar had said that it was his duty to maintain the sovereignty of the legislature and that the Constitution has given equal place to the judiciary, legislature and executive and no one has any superintendence over the other.

The Supreme Court on October 13 came down heavily on Narwekar for the delay in hearing and deciding the disqualification petitions filed by Shiv Sena and NCP.

Following the split in the party last year, the two factions of Shiv Sena filed petitions against each other under the anti-defection law.

NCP leader Patil had also filed a petition in the apex court against the delay by the Maharashtra Speaker in hearing the defection pleas following a split in the NCP recently.

The apex court had said that the Speaker should take a decision in the matter at least before the next Lok Sabha elections and should not render the issue infructuous by delaying it.

The CJI had conveyed displeasure regarding the Speaker’s conduct to Mehta and warned that the court would pass a peremptory order setting down a timeline if a hearing schedule is not put in place.

–IANS