The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to decide within a time limit the disqualification petitions pending for over a year against 16 MLAs, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The top court gave this notice on Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena’s plea to issue instructions to the speaker.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked Speaker Rahul Narvekar to respond within two weeks to the plea of advocate Devdutt Kamat, appearing for Chief Whip Sunil Prabhu. The petition states that the Speaker’s inaction in deciding on the disqualification is an unwarranted act, as it has allowed the disqualified MLAs to continue in the Assembly and hold other responsible positions in the Maharashtra government, including that of the Chief Minister.
Not yet answered: A total of 16 disqualification petitions were filed on June 23, 2022. Notices were issued by the Deputy Speaker on June 25, 2022, giving the rebel MLAs time to file their replies by June 27, 2022 has been given time till July, 2022 to file their reply. However, no reply has been filed so far.
