Sena vs Sena: Maharashtra Speaker Given 1-Week Deadline By Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has issued a stern directive to Rahul Narwekar, the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, ordering him to establish a timeline for the hearing of disqualification petitions against 56 MLAs, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, within one week. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud expressed strong dissatisfaction with the delay, asserting that the top court had been urging the Speaker to make a decision for the past four months.

These disqualification petitions were filed by both factions of the Shiv Sena, namely, the Eknath Shinde faction and the Uddhav Thackeray camp, against each other. The court noted that a total of 34 petitions had been submitted by both sides, seeking the disqualification of 56 MLAs.

The Shiv Sena split into two factions after Eknath Shinde, along with several other MLAs, staged a coup in June 2022 against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray. Thackeray subsequently resigned as Maharashtra CM, and Shinde took his place, with Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP serving as his deputy.

During the proceedings, the Supreme Court bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra was addressing a plea submitted by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who was seeking to expedite the Speaker's decision on the disqualification requests from both factions. The court emphasized that it had instructed the Speaker on May 11 to reach a decision on the disqualification requests "within a reasonable period" but that there had been little progress aside from the issuance of notices to the MLAs in July.

The bench underlined that the Speaker, as a "tribunal under the tenth schedule of the Constitution" (anti-defection law), is subject to the court's jurisdiction. Sunil Prabhu's petition had alleged that Speaker Rahul Narwekar was intentionally delaying the adjudication despite the Supreme Court's verdict in May.

In May, when transferring the disqualification case to the Speaker, the Supreme Court declined to utilize its special powers under Articles 226 and 32, as requested by the Uddhav Thackeray camp, stating that "there are no extraordinary circumstances in the instant case that warrant the exercise of jurisdiction by the court to adjudicate the disqualification petition."

Author: Anushka Taraniya

News Writer, MIT ADT University