The Supreme Court’s notice to Maharashtra legislative assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar should now expedite the process of disqualification of 16 MLAs who rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, said Sunil Prabhu, chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, on Friday.
Earlier in the day, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud sought a response from the office of the Speaker on Prabhu’s plea seeking a direction to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions filed against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other Sena MLAs.
“The Supreme Court notice to the Speaker should now expedite the process of disqualification of 16 MLAs,” Prabhu told PTI.
He claimed that the court has asked the Speaker the reasons behind the delay in giving a decision on the disqualification pleas.
On Prabhu’s plea, the Supreme Court (SC) bench on Friday said, “We will issue notice returnable in two weeks.” In his capacity as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, Prabhu had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and 15 Sena MLAs after their rebellion split the party and caused the collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022. Shinde then tied up with the BJP to become the CM.
Prabhu’s petition in the SC alleged that Speaker Narwekar was deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the May 11 verdict of the apex court on last year’s political crisis in Maharashtra related to the Shiv Sena.
On May 11, the SC ruled that Shinde will continue to be the chief minister of Maharashtra. The top court said it could not reinstate the MVA coalition government headed by Thackeray as the then Sena chief chose to resign without facing a floor test in the wake of Shinde’s rebellion.
Refusing to disqualify the 16 rebel Sena MLAs, including CM Shinde, the court also said that it could not ordinarily adjudicate disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law and directed Speaker Rahul Narwekar to take a decision on the pending matter within a “reasonable period”.
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