New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a final opportunity to the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to provide a realistic timeline for a speedy decision on the disqualification petitions against the Eknath Shinde faction, saying let there be some light at the end of the tunnel.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Speaker, submitted before a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that he needs some more time to come up with a realistic deadline as far as deciding the disqualification petition is concerned.
The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the Assembly Speaker is amenable to the jurisdiction of this court and asked when he is deciding the disqualification petitions. The Chief Justice said, “We are not on what happens on the floor of the House, there we will not interfere….he has to decide Mr SG….meanwhile he is giving interviews that we are a co-equal branch of the government…..”.
Also read: SC urges Maha Speaker to take up disqualification pleas within a week
The bench said the Speaker's inquiry was limited and asked Mehta to give the court a realistic timeline, otherwise, the court will fix a timeline. Mehta said he would sit with the Speaker and provide a realistic timeline. The bench said: “Final opportunity should be granted to prescribe a realistic schedule for disposal of the petitions. List October 30, 2023….”.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice told Mehta the Speaker has to decide the disqualification petitions. The Chief Justice said to let the Speaker sit with all parties and sort out a schedule, and let there be some light at the end of the tunnel.
Mehta submitted that there are several applications filed. The Chief Justice said the earliest petitions are between June and July 2022, and the second batch is between July and September 2023.
The Chief Justice said these are summary proceedings and these are not proceedings before the Election Commission of India where evidence has to be filed to decide, which party has which symbol and the Speaker has to show the schedule on disposal.
The Chief Justice told Mehta unless they assure the court that they'll sit down with the Speaker and made it clear that the court is not satisfied with the schedule provided to decide the disqualification petitions. The top court was hearing a plea filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction seeking an expeditious decision by the Speaker on disqualification petitions filed by them against the Shinde faction.
Along with the Thackeray faction petition, a petition by Jayant Patil, a member of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, was also listed before the apex court. The plea sought a direction to the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to expeditiously decide their petitions seeking disqualification of rebel MLAs led by Ajit Pawar under the anti-defection law.
