MUMBAI: After the Supreme Court’s warning-cum-ultimatum, Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar on Friday decided to expedite the hearing on Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification petitions by clubbing all 34 petitions into six.
He has set an October 25 deadline for Shiv Sena to submit the reply. Narvekar categorised the 34 petitions into six on the basis of their argument and content.
These broad categories are mainly: first petitions – MLAs who failed to attend the first meeting of Shiv Sena called by party president; second petitions – MLAs who failed to attend the second meeting; third petitions – MLAs who voted against the party whip during floor test; fourth petition – Shiv Sena MLAs who failed to follow the whip issued by Shinde faction chief whip Bharat Gogawale; fifth petition –independent MLAs; and the last – voting against the speaker.
Advocate Sunny Jain, representing the Shiv Sena (UBT) side during the hearing, said they asked the Speaker to bring some missing things on record and were therefore told to submit the documents stating that the whip issued on July 2 was issued by Shiv Sena (UBT) and not by another party.
Narvekar expressed displeasure over Shiv Sena (UBT) continuing to approach the Supreme Court for some or other reasons against him. He said Shiv Sena (UBT) says something before him and differs in court. “Shiv Sena (UBT) should clarify their stand on exactly what they want. In fact, they are wasting his time and delaying the entire hearing procedure. Now, they filed the applications asking for some documents, which will delay the procedure. I am here to hear them out, but they should also cooperate with me,” Narvekar said.
He has asked the Shiv Sena (Shinde) to submit the documents by October 25 and the next hearing is scheduled on October 26 while the Supreme Court hearing is on October 30. The Supreme Court, in its last hearing, warned that if it does not see any progress in the hearing of disqualification petitions by the Speaker, then the court may take the matter into its hands.
Advocate Anil Parab said that the Speaker himself was wasting time by delaying the entire procedure. “Now, after the Supreme Court’s rap, he is showing his hurriedness, but it should be time-bound. The matter should be heard immediately and order should be passed, otherwise, they will knock on the Supreme Court door again,” Parab said.
Advocate Assem Sarode, representing Shiv Sena (UBT), said that the issue of Shiv Sena MLAs is simple, but the speaker is complicating it without a reason. He said any person who has no knowledge of law will say all these disqualification petitions are similar in nature and need to be dealt with by clubbing them together and more time was wasted over this simple decision.
“Since the beginning, we have been demanding the same — clubbing all disqualification petitions of Shiv Sena MLAs. And now, the Speaker is saying the same. But deliberately things were complicated with the sole intention of delaying the hearing. As a result, the petition will be heard in six groups concerning the nature of them,” Sarode added.
Disqualification row: 34 pleas clubbed into 6
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar on Friday decided to expedite the hearing on Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification petitions by clubbing all 34 petitions into six. He set an October 25 deadline for the Shiv Sena faction, led by CM Eknath Shinde, to submit the reply. Narvekar categorised the 34 petitions into six on the basis of their argument and content.