Maharashtra legislature officials on Saturday issued fresh notices to 54 Shiv Sena MLAs from the two rival factions summoning them for a hearing at Vidhan Bhavan at 3 pm on Monday. The notices, which have been issued by clubbing all the disqualification petitions before assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, come after the Supreme Court in its order on Monday asked the Speaker to fix a schedule to dispose of the proceedings against the legislators. Narwekar had said in the wake of the SC order that a fresh hearing of Sena MLAs would be held next week and if required, the chiefs of the rival factions, Uddhav Thackeray and CM Eknath Shinde, will also be called for a hearing. Officials said that the MLAs are on Monday likely to be given a schedule for the disqualification proceedings.
The estimated timelines and procedure will be set out and the MLAs informed about these, they said. The legislature’s notice read, “It is to inform you that the disqualification petitions No 1 to 34 of 2022 would be listed before the Speaker-Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on September 25th, 2023 at 3 PM at the central hall, Vidhan Bhavan.
You are hereby instructed to remain present for the hearing.” A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had, referring to the 11 May verdict of the apex court regarding the Maharashtra political crisis and the direction issued by it to the Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions within a “reasonable time”, said the Speaker has to honour the dignity of the Supreme Court and abide by its verdict.
Narwekar visited Delhi last Thursday and upon his return on Friday, 22 September, said that he had met legal experts in the national capital.
He added that the law on disqualification was evolving and it kept changing, so he had discussed with experts issues related to the order of the Supreme Court on the disqualification pleas and what more research was needed about the anti-defection law and its implementation.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut had alleged on Friday that they had doubts that Speaker Rahul Narwekar had gone to Delhi to the BJP headquarters to take a decision regarding the disqualification of Sena MLAs.
“He (Rahul Narwekar) has caused constitutional embarrassment for the past several months. When the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Sena case was clear, he adopted a policy of delay,” Raut said.
