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The Supreme Court’s direction to Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narvekar on petitions seeking disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs has put the spotlight on the delay on the matter, which drags on 4 months after the SC directed the speaker to take decision on disqualification of MLAs and 16 months after the party split. The Court has now told Narvekar to fix a schedule to adjudicate the petitions within “no later than one week”. Meanwhile, the clock is already ticking for the next Assembly elections in the state.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has accused Narvekar of deliberately delaying the disqualification decision to help the Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde, which had in June 2022 joined the BJP and come to power.
After the split, both the factions – the one led by Shinde, and the other by Uddhav Thackeray – had accused each other of defying the party’s whip over both the election of a Speaker and the trust vote on July 4, 2022. Consequently, both sought disqualification of the MLAs from the opposite side.
The chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, MLA Sunil Prabhu, filed disqualification petitions against 16 Shinde Sena MLAs. The Shinde Sena faction reacted by immediately filing a counter petition, seeking disqualification of 14 Uddhav Sena MLAs.
As things stand, all the 54 MLAs – across the two factions – face disqualification petitions, except for two Sena (UBT) MLAs, Aaditya Thackeray (against whom the Shinde Sena did not file a petition as they “respect the Thackerays”) and Rutuja Latke, who was elected as an MLA in a bypoll only in October last year.
Following the Court order, Narvekar’s office said it was drawing up a schedule on the hearing of the disqualification petitions, as well as the reply to be sent to the Court on the work done so far.
An official said: “Fresh notices will be issued to all the MLAs facing disqualification, and the Speaker will hold the hearing next week. They will all be informed of the timeline and procedure, once these are set. We are also contemplating issuing notices to heads of both the Sena factions to present their side of the story.”
In its earlier decision in May, the apex court had left the matter to the Speaker, saying he should settle it, but “within a reasonable time”. However, thereafter, Narvekar kept saying he would “neither hurry to arrive at a decision nor delay it”, and that everything would be decided on the merits of the case, and as per the Constitution.
Since the May ruling, Uddhav Sena delegations have thrice filed representations before Narvekar, urging expeditious disposal of the petitions. The party says that still, there was no movement.
The Uddhav Sena also calls Narvekar’s decision to expand the disqualification plea hearing to all 54 MLAs of the undivided Shiv Sena as a delaying tactic. The fact that the Speaker’s office only sought an original copy of the constitution of the undivided Shiv Sena – essential to the decision on disqualification – from the Election Commission on June 7 this year has also been questioned by the Uddhav Sena and its partners in the Opposition.
As per a source, even after receiving a copy of the Shiv Sena constitution, the Speaker waited a month to issue notices to MLAs of one faction, and then took 20 days more for notices to MLAs of the other Sena faction. They were told to present their side in writing within seven days.
As the Court deadline approaches, Narvekar must now sift through replies filed by the 56 MLAs which run into thousands of pages in total. While Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs filed their replies in July itself, the other faction did so, sending in reams of sheets, only in August-end, criticised by the Opposition as yet another delaying tactic.
Education minister and Shinde Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar told reporters at the time that “a long reply does not mean we are wasting the time”.
Afterwards, Narvekar called for a hearing on September 14, giving them two weeks to exchange their submissions with each other. According to the Uddhav Sena, this sudden activity – after a gap of the whole of August in the middle – was to preempt the hearing come up on the case in the Supreme Court.
“We are seeking justice. But we don’t know why the disqualification decision is being delayed. The Supreme Court (noted that) four months had passed without any decision being taken,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai.
