SC to Maha Speaker: Set timeline for deciding pleas for disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs of CM Eknath Shinde faction

Supreme Court on Monday asked the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar to set a timeline for deciding pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and set down a time schedule to decide disqualification pleas.

The apex court while hearing the matter has granted one week to the speaker to decide on the timeline.

A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra referred to the May 11 verdict of the apex court on the Maharashtra political crisis and the direction issued by it to the speaker to decide the disqualification petitions within a reasonable time.


"We expect deference and dignity to the directions issued by the Supreme Court," the bench said and listed the plea by Shiv Sena (UBT) faction seeking disqualification of Shinde and other Shiv Sena MLAs supporting him after two weeks.

The speaker is a "tribunal under the tenth schedule of the Constitution", and as a tribunal, he is amenable to the court's jurisdiction, the bench said, adding nothing has been done about the pending disqualification petitions after the May 11 judgement.

Earlier, Uddhav Thackery's faction had approached the Supreme Court seeking to order the Maharashtra speaker to give an order on the disqualification within 15 days. The SC in its order in May had held that the Maharashtra Assembly speaker had to decide on the disqualification proceedings within a ‘reasonable time’.

(More to come)