Sena vs Sena: Maharashtra speaker told to give timeline within one week

The bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, said, “Mr SG, he (Speaker) has to decide the matter. He can’t do this.

NEW DELHI: Questioning Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar for his failure to act on the disqualification proceedings pending against CM Eknath Shinde and rebel MLAs, the Supreme Court on Monday fast-tracked the hearing by directing the Speaker to spell out a timeline within a week for adjudication of the pleas.

A bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud remarked that it appeared that nothing had happened irrespective of the SC’s May 11 ruling of directing Narwekar to decide the disqualification pleas within a “reasonable time”, adding that it expected the speaker to maintain the dignity of its judgment.

“While this court is cognizant to the need for comity with the Speaker, we also expect the dignity of this court’s judgment to be maintained,” the bench said in its order and asked the Speaker to apprise the court of the timeline.

The bench, comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, said, “Mr SG, he (Speaker) has to decide the matter. He can’t do this. What does the speaker do after the May 11 judgment by our court? It appears that nothing has happened. Speaker can’t say now that I will have to hear it in due course. He’s a tribunal under the 10th schedule. As tribunals are amenable to the jurisdiction of the court. What is the speaker proposing to do? He has to sit down and decide the questions now. We didn’t set down a three-month retirement. Now 11th May we have way past four months have gone by & we are in the stage of issuing notices.”

The SC was considering a plea filed by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) seeking directions to the Speaker to quickly decide the disqualification pleas pending against Shinde and 15 other MLAs.