‘Deliver judgement by January 10’, SC to Maharashtra speaker on disqualification of MLAs

Supreme Court has extended the time till January 10 for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to pronounce verdict on disqualification petitions against MLAs including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena

New Delhi:The Supreme Court Friday granted an extension of 10 days to the Maharashtra assembly speaker to decide the cross-petitions filed by the rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud noted that the speaker had indicated that the proceedings would be closed on December 20 and the speaker had sought a reasonable extension of time.

The bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said bearing in mind the time limit laid out earlier, “We grant an extension of time till January 10, 2023, for the speaker to deliver judgment”. The apex court had earlier asked the speaker to decide the disqualification pleas by December 31.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that the speaker had said that on 20 December the judgment would be reserved and no further time would be taken. Mehta said hearings took place even during the assembly session. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal objected to Mehta’s submissions.

Mehta said the speaker is seeking a pronouncement of judgment extension by three weeks and “we won't ask for more."

The top court was hearing two petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP, seeking a direction to the speaker to expeditiously decide disqualification proceedings against some MLAs.

On October 30, the Supreme Court had directed the Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide by December 31 the disqualification petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena against the Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and the other rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who backed him.

34 disqualification petitions are related to the Shiv Sena split, five are concerning Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs who defected to join the Shinde government.