​​Will have to put in extra hours to hear disqualification pleas: Maharashtra speaker Narwekar

Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday said that he would need to put in extra hours to conduct hearings on disqualification petitions while ensuring smooth functioning of the House.
The Winter Session of the state legislature is scheduled to be held in Nagpur from December 7 to December 20. Speaking to reporters here, Narwekar said, “I need to ensure the smooth functioning of the legislative assembly as well as complete the disqualification hearings pending before me. It looks like I will be working from 9 am to 10 pm in this period to give justice to both responsibilities.” Rahul Narwekar is hearing cross-petitions filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party last year.
Narwekar said he would hear the petitions on Thursday for two and a half hours at the Vidhan Bhavan in Nagpur. The speaker said it would be a challenging task for him to pay attention to both – hearings as well as smooth functioning of the House.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) is seeking disqualification of Shinde-led 40 rebel MLAs who revolted against Thackeray, which not only led to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in June 2022, but also caused a split in the 57-year-old party.
The Shinde camp has alleged that the documents based on which the Thackeray-led group has been seeking disqualification of their rival MLAs are ‘’fake’’.
The Supreme Court has asked the speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions by December 31.