On October 30, the Supreme Court ordered the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker to resolve disqualification petitions regarding the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party disputes by December 31, 2023, and January 31, 2024, respectively.
The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud's bench reviewed writ petitions from Shiv Sena's Sunil Prabhu and NCP's Jayant Patil, requesting a prompt Speaker decision on disqualification petitions against Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions.
The bench showed dissatisfaction with the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker's stance, as he sought until February 29, 2024, to resolve the disqualification petitions related to the Shiv Sena rift involving Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud expressed surprise at the Speaker's change of stance to hear by February 29, 2024, after earlier reprimanding him for the delay. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Speaker Rahul Narwekar, assured that proceedings would be completed by January 31.
CJI Chandrachud emphasized that the Speaker must make a decision and conclude the matter by December 31.
CJI reiterated the importance of not allowing the proceedings to linger until the elections are announced, emphasizing the December 31 deadline. He also noted that the Constitution Bench judgment in the Shiv Sena case was issued in May of that year, and the incidents occurred in July 2022.
The Solicitor General, taking into account Diwali vacations and the winter session of the assembly, argued that expecting a decision before January 31 would be unrealistic.
The bench maintained its stance on completing the proceedings by December 31 and issued an order accordingly. Concerning the NCP rift, the Court extended the deadline to January 31. During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Ajit Pawar faction, objected to setting a deadline for the NCP matter, citing that the petitions were filed only in July and September of the current year. However, Sibal, representing the Sharad Pawar group, suggested that only the petitions filed against nine NCP MLAs in July should be considered at this stage.
CJI noted, "We will acknowledge Mr. Sibal's statement that, at this stage, we are only concerned with the petitions filed in July for Group B (NCP)… Regarding the Group B petitions, the disqualification matter is limited to the petitions filed in July."
Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat represented the Uddhav Thackeray group and the Sharad Pawar group. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the Ajit Pawar group, and Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul represented the Eknath Shinde group.
In the previous hearing, the court had given the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly a "final opportunity" to establish a suitable schedule for expediting the hearing of disqualification petitions. Earlier, the court had reprimanded the Speaker for setting a lengthy schedule for the Shiv Sena cases and had requested that the Speaker provide a more appropriate time estimate for the petition hearings. The bench expressed discontent with the initially proposed time schedule, as it believed that following it would not lead to a prompt or foreseeable resolution in the disqualification proceedings.
TAGS: last hearing final opportunity Speaker Maharashtra Legislative Assembly schedule expeditious hearing criticism
