A plea was filed on Tuesday in the Supreme Court by the Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena for a direction to the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to decide the disqualification petitions pending against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other MLAs for over one year, in a time bound manner, preferably within two weeks.
In a writ petition, party's chief whip Sunil Prabhu claimed the Speaker’s inaction in deciding the disqualification proceedings is "an act of grave constitutional impropriety" as this allowed MLAs, liable to be disqualified, to continue in the assembly and to hold responsible positions in the government of Maharashtra, including that of the Chief Minister.
"The Speaker has clearly demonstrated by his inaction that he is incapable of functioning as a fair and unbiased Tribunal under the Tenth Schedule, as required by law,” the plea alleged.
The development comes within days of NCP's Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs, another constituent of Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Thackeray, joining the government led by Shinde with support of BJP.
The fresh plea by Thackeray faction contended that the Speaker has not convened any meeting with regard to the disqualification petitions, pending since June 23, 2022, despite three representations sent to him after the Supreme Court's Constitution bench's May 11, 2023 order to him decide the matter within a reasonable period.
"However, the Speaker in brazen disregard to his constitutional duties as a neutral arbiter, has sought to delay the adjudications of the disqualification petitions, thereby, permitting the illegal continuance of Shinde as Chief Minister, against whom the disqualification petitions are pending," the plea filed by advocate Nishanth Patil stated.
The petition claimed in the present case, the delinquent MLAs against whom disqualification petitions are pending have committed brazenly unconstitutional acts, which per se, invited disqualification under Paras 2(1)(a), 2(1)(b), and 2(2) of the Tenth Schedule.
The plea also maintained that it is constitutionally imperative for this court to issue appropriate directions to ensure that the provisions of the Tenth Schedule (anti defection law) are not reduced to a nullity merely on account of inaction of the Speaker.
A total of 16 disqualification petitions were filed on June 23, 2022, and notices were issued by the Deputy Speaker (performing the functions of Speaker) on June 25, 2022, granting the rebel MLAs time to file their reply by June 27, 2022, the plea said.
The Supreme Court, by its order on June 27, 2022, granted time to Shinde and Bharat Gogawale and other similarly situated MLAs to file their replies by July 2022.
However, no reply has been filed till date. Thus, the right to file their replies in these 16 petitions stands closed, it contended.