Expressing its deep concern, the Supreme Court on Friday deprecated the Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar for not implementing its May 11, 2023 order, directing him to decide within a “reasonable period of time” the petitions by the Shiv sena (Uddhav Babasaheb Thackeray) seeking the disqualification of 56 MLAs for deserting the Shiv Sena party along with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Taking a dim view of the delay in the conduct of the disqualification proceedings and stating the need to “advise the Speaker,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud heading a bench also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, said that the decision has to be taken well before the next elections and that the proceedings cannot go on till they become infructuous.
Asking the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to advise the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions, Chief Justice Chandrachud said: “Somebody has to advise the Speaker that he cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court. What kind of time schedule is he prescribing? This is a summary procedure. Last time, we thought better sense will prevail and asked him to lay down a schedule. The idea of laying down the schedule was not to indefinitely delay the hearing. Because then their (petitioner seeking disqualification) apprehension is correct.”
“You and the Advocate General of Maharashtra speak with the speaker…come back to us on Monday. We don’t want this rigmarole of someone filed this or that,” CJI Chandrachud told the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta making it clear either the Speaker should decide on a schedule for deciding the disqualification petition or the court will fix the schedule.
In the course of the hearing CJI Chandrachud repeatedly expressed concern over the Speaker not implementing the May 11 Supreme Court order.
“We are concerned about maintaining the dignity of this court. Our orders must be complied with,” Chief Justice said emphasising that “The procedure which is prescribed has to be given an impression that there is a serious consideration of what is happening.”
The bench told the Solicitor General, “We will keep the matter for Tuesday. Let the Speaker give a time schedule. If not, we will give a timeframe for the completion of the proceedings. The order of this court has to be followed.”
The strong observation from the bench deprecating the way Speaker Narwekar came in the course of the hearing of a Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction’s plea seeking time bound disposal of the disqualification petitions against MLAs who split the legislature party making Eknath Shinde as their leader.
“We issued a notice on July 14. Thereafter, we passed an order in September. Now seeing that the speaker has not taken any steps, we are constrained to say that he must take a decision in two months,” the CJI said, indicating that any further delay would invite their intervention.
At the outset of the hearing today, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) raised objections over the timeline and procedure set down by Speaker Narwekar for holding the hearings on disqualification of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, saying that there is no clarity till when the hearing will go on as final hearing date is not mentioned.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) said that Maharashtra is set to go for election next year – suggesting that the procedure being followed by the Speaker may not be over by then.
In the last hearing of the matter on September 18, while expressing strong displeasure over the manner in which the Speaker has not acted in the last four months since May 11, 2023, constitution bench judgment, the top court had given Speaker Narwekar two weeks’ time to apprise it (the court) on the time frame for completing the record and deciding the disqualification petitions against 56 MLAs pending before him since long.
The top court had said that “It cannot go on indefinitely. We will hear it after two weeks, let him tell us after two weeks on the steps he has taken and give the time frame to decide the matter.”
Posting the matter for hearing on October 17, the bench also posted along with it the plea of the Sharad Pawar faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seeking directions to the Speaker to take action against rebel MLAs led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.