Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court's order asking Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar not to proceed with the plea seeking disqualification of MLAs of the Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray. Talking to reporters in Delhi, Shiv Sena MLC and former Maharashtra minister Anil Parab said the state legislature had filed an affidavit in the SC which stated that a new Speaker has been elected and he has the right to hear the plea of disqualification of MLAs. The new Speaker is from the BJP, so we thought we had a little chance to get justice, Parab said.
We said (in the Supreme Court) that till the time our three petitions are heard, there should be no decision on this (the disqualification of MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray faction)," he said. Hence, the SC has said till the time a decision is taken in the court, the Speaker should not take any decision. This means the Speaker cannot disqualify an MLA in any way, he said.
Last week, Maharashtra legislature secretary issued show cause notices to 53 out of the total 55 Shiv Sena MLAs in the state - 39 of the faction led by Eknath Shinde and 14 of the Uddhav Thackeray group. One of the 14 MLAs from the Thackeray side, Santosh Bangar, joined the Shinde camp on the day of the floor test of the latter's government on July 4.
Also read: Supreme Court to begin regular hearings after month-long summer break
Parab said the Thackeray faction believes that 39 MLAs of the group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde violated the whip during the trust vote of the Shinde government and election of Speaker Narvekar. So, the Speaker's election in itself is wrong, he claimed. The Thackeray faction filed several pleas in the top court after the Sena MLAs led by Shinde formed a coalition with the BJP to form the government in the state. If the court decides in our favour, then the floor test will be deemed null and void, Parab said.
The Thackeray faction has also challenged the validity of Assembly proceedings held on July 3 and July 4 during which the new House Speaker was elected and the floor test where the Shinde-led coalition proved its majority. It has also filed a plea challenging the decision of Speaker Narvekar to recognise the new party whip, Bharat Gogawale, of MLAs led by CM Shinde.
Prior to this, the Thackeray faction's chief whip Sunil Prabhu had moved the top court seeking suspension from the Assembly of CM Shinde and 15 MLAs of his group against whom the disqualification pleas are pending. The SC's vacation bench had on June 27 granted interim relief to the Shinde faction by extending the time for replying to the disqualification notices sent to 16 Sena MLAs of his faction till July 12. (PTI)
