New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a petition filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seeking a direction to the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to expeditiously take a decision on their petitions seeking disqualification of Ajit Pawar and other MLAs under the anti-defection law.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra decided to list the petition on Friday along with the Shiv Sena case.
Earlier in the Shiv Sena case the apex court had directed the Maharashtra Speaker to decide the disqualification matters in a time bound manner.
“We had asked the Speaker to put up a schedule for these pleas..we will list the Shiv Sena one and this together on Friday.” the CJI said.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Ajit Pawar faction, said that the disqualification petitions were filed only in September and the petitioner very soon approached the apex court.
The court was hearing petitions filed by NCP MLA Jayant Patil, who filed the petition on behalf of the Sharad Pawar faction against the delay by Narwekar in deciding on the disqualification petition against rebel MLAs led by Ajit Pawar.
In July, a section of NCP MLAs led by Deputy CM of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel joined hands with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
It was then that the NCP led by Sharad Pawar moved a disqualification petition against Ajit Pawar and the eight MLAs who joined the Shinde government.
Ajit Pawar, however, claimed that he had the support of the majority of NCP MLAs. The Election Commission of India is hearing a petition filed by Ajit Pawar’s faction claiming the original NCP party’s name and its election symbol.
— IANS