Maharashtra Speaker mustn't decide on pro-Uddhav MLAs: Supreme Court

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the newly elected Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar from proceeding with petitions seeking the disqualification of MLAs belonging to former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena.

Pressure on Uddhav to back Murmu

Sixteen Shiv Sena MPs on Monday urged former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray to back NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. The party has 19 LS and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs

“You please inform the Assembly Speaker not to take any hearing…. Let us see, we will hear the matter,” a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The direction came after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, submitted that several petitions of the Uddhav faction were to be listed on Monday but weren’t listed despite directions issued by the court.

Pointing out that the court had earlier protected the rebel MLAs after they filed petitions, Sibal urged the Bench to ensure that there was no disqualification of any MLA until the matter was decided by the top court.

CJI NV Ramana said he needed time to constitute an appropriate Bench to hear and decide the matter.

The Thackeray faction has also challenged the validity of Assembly proceedings held on July 3 and 4 in which a new Speaker of the House was elected and the subsequent proceedings of floor test in which the Shinde-led coalition had proved its majority. It also questioned Narwekar’s decision to recognise a new chief whip belonging to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led group of the party. The top court had on June 27 kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought response from the state government and others on the petition of MLAs (of Shinde faction) questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.

In a setback to the Thackeray faction ahead of the crucial trust vote of the Eknath Shinde-led government, the newly appointed Speaker had removed Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhary as the legislature party leader. Narwekar had recognised Shinde as the Shiv Sena Legislature Party Leader and Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, in place of Thackeray loyalist Sunil Prabhu.

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