A day after the Supreme Court rapped Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar over the delay in taking a decision on the disqualification pleas of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction MLAs, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday slammed the speaker and alleged that he is behaving like someone who gives refuge to a murderer to encourage the latter to commit more such crimes.
"The speaker is working like someone giving refuge to a murderer to encourage him to commit more such crimes. Doesn't he know the law?" Raut said while speaking to reporters.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) MP said that the Supreme Court had not previously adopted the stance it adopted on Friday, specifically in relation to its criticisms of the speaker. He alleged that the speaker, the Chief Minister (Eknath Shinde), and his government were tarnishing the reputation of Maharashtra.
Here's what the Supreme Court had said?
The Supreme Court heavily criticized the assembly speaker on Friday for the delay in deciding the disqualification petitions against Chief Minister Shinde and the Shiv Sena MLAs loyal to him. The Court emphasized that the proceedings should not be a mere "charade," and the speaker should not attempt to "defeat" its orders.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing speaker Rahul Narwekar, to apprise it about the timeline for deciding the petitions on Tuesday, saying it will pass a peremptory order if it is not satisfied.
“Somebody has to advise the (assembly) speaker. He cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court. What kind of time schedule is he 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 apex court said that the idea of laying down the time schedule was not to "indefinitely delay" the hearing on the disqualification proceedings.
Earlier on September 18, the bench had instructed the speaker to provide a clear timetable for the resolution of the disqualification petitions involving Chief Minister Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs who had joined forces with the BJP to establish a new government in June 2022.
The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde faction.
What is the case?
The Thackeray faction had approached the Supreme Court in July, requesting the court to direct the state assembly speaker to expedite the adjudication of the disqualification petitions within a specified timeframe.
The plea filed by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who had submitted the disqualification petitions against Eknath Shinde and other MLAs in 2022 when he served as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, claimed that Speaker Rahul Narwekar was intentionally prolonging the adjudication process, going against the Supreme Court's directive.
Later, a separate plea was filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a direction to the assembly speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and party MLAs loyal to him.
In July, the speaker had issued notices to 40 MLAs of the Shinde-led Sena and 14 of the Thackeray faction, seeking their replies on disqualification petitions against them. The notices were issued against a total of 54 MLAs, including CM Shinde and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray. But notice was not issued against Sena (UBT) MLA Rutuja Latke who was elected after the Shiv Sena split last year.
