The Supreme Court on December 15 gave the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar till January 10, 2024 to deliver his judgment on disqualifications petitions filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray.
On October 30, the Supreme Court had given Mr. Narwekar time till December 31, 2023.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Speaker, said the disqualification proceedings would wrap up on December 20 and be reserved for judgment.
He said the records spanned over 2.71 lakh pages, the respondents numbered 133 and there were 53 MLAs involved. Mr. Mehta said the Speaker has been hearing the disqualification case “morning and night” over and above the Assembly session.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said the Speaker would require a “reasonable time” to deliver his judgment.
Mr. Mehta urged the court to give the Speaker three more weeks from December 31. “These are not legally trained people. We will not ask for further extensions,” he said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the Thackeray camp, however objected. He said this request was only an excuse for delaying a decision.
“Mr. Mehta, we will give him time till January 10,” Chief Justice finally concluded after consulting his two colleagues on the Bench, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
Mr. Sibal said the extension of time should not delay the Speaker in deciding another batch of disqualification petitions against the breakaway faction headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the Nationalist Congress Party dispute.
The deadline for this batch is January 31, 2024.
The Chief Justice had put the Speaker, who acts in the capacity of a tribunal while hearing disqualification cases, on the clock after giving him repeated opportunities to conclude the proceedings.
In October, the court had slammed Mr. Narwekar for reducing the anti-defection proceedings to a “charade”, saying that he cannot “merrily” defer hearings and has to decide before the next elections.
