Maharashtra speaker should be directed to decide on Sena, NCP disqualification pleas in specific timeframe: Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Friday sought Supreme Court's directions to Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide on the disqualification pleas of Shiv Sena and NCP MLAs within a specific timeframe.

He said there was a delay on the part of the speaker in taking decision on the pleas, and that was why the NCP also approached the apex court.

The Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on the assembly speaker for the delay in deciding the plea for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs, saying the speaker "cannot defeat the orders" of the top court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said decision on disqualification pleas has to be taken before next assembly elections or the whole process will become infructuous.

"Directions should be (given) that the decision should be taken in a specific timeframe and it cannot be delayed. The same stand was of the Shiv Sena," Pawar said in response to a question after the Supreme Court's observations.

The SC hearing was attended by NCP leaders Supriya Sule and Jitendra Awhad, he said.

Both the Sena (UBT) and Pawar-led NCP want a speedy decision on disqualification of rebel MLAs.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the Supreme Court has passed another stricture against speaker Narwekar, indicating clearly that he is deliberately delaying a decision on the Shiv Sena split that happened one-and-a-half years ago.

"This is the second time the apex court has warned the speaker on violating the Constitution," he told PTI.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing that the Supreme Court can do. Anti-defection law gives adjudicating powers to the speaker, who is appointed by a political party and remains a member of that party and he is bound by the interest of the political party to which he belongs," Chavan said.

"Therefore, the 10th Schedule of the anti-defection law amended in 2003 is ab initio flawed and needs to be scrapped in toto. The CJI has the authority to initiate proceedings against the speaker. I don't know whether the Supreme Court will utilise its inherent power to protect the Constitution and the rule of law," he said.

On September 18, the top court had directed the Maharashtra assembly speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs.

Narwekar had last month started the process to hear the pleas filed by rival Shiv Sena factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray. The first actual hearing of disqualification pleas against Shinde and 15 other MLAs was held at Vidhan Bhavan on Thursday.

Sunil Prabhu from the Thackeray faction, in his capacity as chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and 15 other MLAs last year after the rebellion and resultant split in the party.

In July this year, Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state, creating a split in the Sharad Pawar-founded party.