The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to pronounce verdict on disqualification petitions of MLAs from both factions of Shiv Sena by January 10. The speaker is also expected to announce a decision on a disqualification petition against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Earlier, the Maharashtra speaker had sought some time to evaluate the details and information produced in front of him related to the petitions. Two months ago, the Supreme Court had asked him to announce his decision on the matter by December 31. The apex court had also rapped Narwekar over delay in announcing verdict on MLA disqualification petitions. However, he sought two more weeks due to the large volume of documents generated during the hearing.
During the hearing which included 20 sessions with more than six hours each, the legislature produced 2.67 lakh pages of documents. These documents include 34 petitions from both camps and replies. According to a Hindustan Times report, the documents also encompass more than 1,100 questions and their replies by the witnesses.
Till now, Narwekar has completed the examination and cross-examination of the documents. Now, he is set to begin hearing the oral arguments on December 18. After two days of hearing oral arguments, the speaker would require the study and re-examination of documents, which will require more time, officials told HT.
The Maharashtra Assembly speaker was ordered by the top court on October 30 to announce a verdict on the petitions filed by rival factions of Shiv Sena on disqualification of each other’s MLAs before December 31.
After the instruction, Narwekar began hearing and holding sessions in Mumbai and Nagpur Vidhan Bhavan over the past six weeks. According to the HT report, a total of 34 petitions have been classified into six groups. These groups include issuance of the whip, floor test of the Eknath Shinde government, and election of the speaker.
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