The Supreme court on Monday gave Maharashtra legislative assembly Speaker two weeks’ time to apprise it on the time frame for completing the record and deciding the disqualification petitions against 56 MLAs pending before him since long, as the court flayed him (the Speaker) for just not doing anything despite its May 11, 2023, order.

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, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud heading a bench also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said that they expect “deference and dignity to the directions” issued by it (top court) and stated “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.”

Directing the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions in a time-frame, the bench in its order said: “Order (May 11, 2023) of this Court requires the Speaker to decide proceedings within a reasonable period of time. We expect deference and dignity to the directions issued in exercise of the Constitutional power. We now direct procedural directions shall be issued by the Speaker within a week setting out a timeline to complete the proceedings. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta shall inform the Court what is the timeline being set for disposing of the proceedings.”

Telling Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions, Chief Justice Chandrachud said: “Mr Speaker it has to be decided. What the Speaker did after May 11, judgment by us. It appears nothing has happened. He must sit down and decide the case. We did not set out time (to decide the disqualification petitions). The Speaker has to decide on the order of the Supreme Court. We are not setting three months’ time.”

Reference to three-month’s time is in respect of a judgment by a former judge of the top court, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, who in one of the judgments had said that the Speaker must decide on a disqualification petition within three-months.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the court that the Speaker was a constitutional authority and another constitutional authority (Supreme Court) should not ask him to account for day-to-day action while acting on disqualification petitions. Solicitor General Mehta along with another senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul sought to impress upon the bench on the steps taken by the Speaker and put the blame for the delay on the Shiv Sena (Udhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

The Chief Justice Chandrachud said that while acting under 1Tenth schedule of the constitution dealing with the disqualification of lawmaker – MPs and MLAs – Speaker is acting as a head of a tribunal and all tribunals are under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The top court said this while hearing a plea seeking expeditious decision of the disqualification petitions pending against the MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to Udhay Thackeray and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde respectively. The plea by Shiv Sena (Udhav Balasaheb Thackeray) was by Sunil Prabhu – the whip of the party.

The five-judge constitution bench on May 11, 2023 in a direction to the Speaker had said: “This Court cannot ordinarily adjudicate petitions for disqualification under the Tenth Schedule in the first instance. There are no extraordinary circumstances in the instant case that warrant the exercise of jurisdiction by this Court to adjudicate disqualification petitions. The Speaker must decide disqualification petitions within a reasonable period.”

The bench directed the listing of the matter after two-weeks.