The Supreme Court on Monday (September 18) gave Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar a week’s time to open disqualification proceedings against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other MLAs accused of defection.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said four months have passed since the Speaker was entrusted the task by a Constitution Bench on May 11. The proceedings had hardly moved all this time.
The court had expected the Maharashtra Speaker to show “deference and dignity” to the court’s direction that he should decide the disqualification petitions within a “reasonable time”.
