The Supreme Court has asked Ajit Pawar and his 40 MLAs to respond to a plea from the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). This plea challenges the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s decision, which recognized the group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the legitimate NCP.
The court, led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, along with Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted that the case is urgent due to the state assembly’s term ending in November this year. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Sharad Pawar’s group, stressed the need for a quick hearing.
The court plans to hear the Sharad Pawar faction’s plea after addressing a similar petition from the Uddhav Thackeray camp. The Thackeray group has also challenged the Speaker’s decision, which favored Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his MLAs.
Chief Justice Chandrachud mentioned that the court would issue notices and decide on all objections, including whether the petitions are maintainable, at the final hearing. The court has allowed serving the notices personally.
On February 15, Speaker Rahul Narwekar had ruled that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, who broke away from Sharad Pawar and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government, was the genuine NCP. He had also dismissed disqualification petitions from both factions against each other’s MLAs.
The Speaker noted that the anti-defection law could not be used to suppress internal dissent and pointed out that Ajit Pawar’s group had a strong legislative majority of 41 out of 53 MLAs when the NCP split in July 2023.
