Shiv Sena row: The Supreme Court on Friday granted more time to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the cross-petitions filed by the rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs. The top court has extended the time till January 10.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Speaker to take a final call regarding the disqualification pleas by December 31, but Narwekar sought more time to review the pending petitions. “The speaker has indicated that the proceedings will be closed on December 20 and the speaker had sought a reasonable extension of time. Bearing in mind the time limit laid out earlier, we grant an extension of time till January 10, 2023 for the speaker to deliver judgment,” a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.
The Supreme Court heard two petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP. They sought a directive to the speaker to promptly decide on disqualification proceedings against certain MLAs.
What happened in the case earlier?
Earlier on September 18, the bench had directed the speaker to spell out the time table for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.
The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde faction.
The Thackeray faction had moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.
(With PTI inputs)
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