New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday observed that the Maharashtra legislative assembly speaker should take a decision on the disqualification petitions against Eknath Shinde faction at least before the next election, and stressed that the speaker must give the impression that he is taking the matter seriously. Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud said since June there is no action in the matter and these hearings before the election tribunal should not be reduced to a charade, and they are serious proceedings.
A bench led by CJI and comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said: “The writ of this court has to run…..if there is a failure to take a decision as mandated by the Constitution….these are not proceedings taking place on the floor of the House. Mr Solicitor, we are giving an opportunity until Monday. If we don’t find a proper time schedule, we will issue an order….”.
The Chief Justice said “we are concerned about two things: our order is not being implemented, which is the matter of concern…..”, and stressed that “the decision should be taken at least before the next election, and the idea should not be let this go on merrily so that ultimately you render all this infructuous”.
The Chief Justice said the whole exercise done by the court in May 2023, the court expected the speaker to act, and the reason why we don’t set a time schedule is because we respect that he is a speaker of the coordinate branch of the government. “But if they are not doing it then we have to hold them to account by saying you are an election tribunal. You will have to decide. That is why Justice Nariman fixed that time”, said the Chief Justice.
During the hearing, the bench expressed its discontent with the Maharashtra speaker for laying down a long schedule for hearing of the disqualification petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions of the Shiv Sena against each other under anti-defection law.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, said this is becoming a farce. The Chief Justice asked the Solicitor General to advise the speaker, as he cannot defeat the orders of the apex court, while questioning the time schedule he had prescribed and stressed that the idea of laying down schedule was not to indefinitely delay the hearing. The Chief Justice said, "He must give the impression that he is taking the matter seriously. Since June, there is no action in the matter...What has happened in the case? This cannot become charade”.
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Mehta said the speaker is exercising powers under the tenth schedule as a tribunal and asked if the apex court can interfere with its day-to-day functioning.
The Chief Justice orally remarked that the court issued notice in July and an order was passed in September, now after noting that speaker has not taken steps, “ we are constrained to say that he must take a decision in 2 months”. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Shinde faction, objected to the apex court passing the directions to the speaker to take a decision.
The apex court has fixed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday. The top court was hearing a plea filed by Thackeray faction seeking 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, member of Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, was also listed before the apex court. The plea sought a direction to the Maharashtra legislative assembly Speaker to expeditiously decide their petitions seeking disqualification of rebel MLAs led by Ajit Pawar under the anti-defection law.
