SC asks Maharashtra Speaker to decide disqualification plea against Sena MLAs by December 31

Uddhav Vs Shinde

The Supreme Court on October 30 asked the Speaker of Maharashtra legislative assembly to decide petitions seeking disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs by December 31.

The court has also directed the Speaker to decide disqualification petitions against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs by January 31. The cases will now come up for hearing in the second week of January.

SC passed these orders in petitions filed by members of Shiv Sena's Uddhav faction and Shadrad Pawar faction of NCP to direct the speaker to decide the disqualification pleas soon, pursuant to the constitution bench ruling in May 2023.

On October 17, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said, "We are not satisfied with the time schedule. SG has apprised that during Dussehra breaks he would personally engage with the Speaker so as to indicate a firm set of modalities,". The apex court had earlier come down heavily on the Speaker over the delay in deciding the pleas.

Similar disqualification petitions have also been filed by the Shinde bloc against lawmakers owing allegiance to Thackeray. On September 18, the top court directed the speaker to Spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.

The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde faction.

The Thackeray faction moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.

The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged Speaker Narwekar was deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex court.

Later, a separate plea was filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a direction to the assembly speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and party MLAs loyal to him.

On May 11, a constitution bench of the apex court  held the Maharashtra governor was not justified in calling upon then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove majority in the Assembly on June 30 last year but refused to order status quo ante, saying he did not face the floor test and resigned.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Eknath Shinde faction, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud held that House speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal."

It, however, said since Thackeray had resigned without facing the floor test, the governor was justified in inviting Shinde to form government at the behest of the BJP which was the largest political party in the house.