Disqualification of MLAs: SC tells Maharashtra speaker not to enact a charade

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Speaker Rahul Narwekar, to apprise it on Tuesday about the timeline for deciding the petitions, saying a “peremptory order” will be passed if it was not satisfied.

“Somebody has to advise the speaker. He cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court. What kind of time schedule he is prescribing? ...This (disqualification proceedings) is a summary procedure. Last time, we thought, better sense will prevail and had asked him to lay down a time schedule,” said the bench.

The idea of laying down the time schedule was not to “indefinitely delay” the hearing on the disqualification proceedings, the court said.

A visibly irked chief justice said a decision on disqualification pleas has to be taken before the next assembly elections or the whole process will become infructuous.

The next state assembly polls will likely be held around September-October 2024.

Decide early

“The decision has to be taken well before the next elections and this cannot go on merrily to render the whole process infructuous,” the bench said.

Voicing concern over non-adherence to its earlier order, the court said nothing has moved in the matter since June. It asked the government's top law officer to “advise the speaker”, saying “he needs assistance which is obvious”.

“Since June, there has been no action in the matter. What has happened in this case? Nothing! This cannot become a charade. There has to be a hearing (before the speaker)," the bench said.

"I am concerned about maintaining the dignity of our court,” the chief justice said.

The court was hearing two petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, seeking a direction to the speaker to expeditiously decide disqualification proceedings against some MLAS.

Delaying tactics

Another senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said on Thursday the speaker spent four hours clubbing several disqualification petitions only because the matter was to come up before the top court.

“We pay deference to all branches of government. But the writ of this court has to run when we see that there is a failure of this court's mandate,” the bench said.

The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged that Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex court.

(With agency inputs)