Shiv Sena (UBT) Moves SC Against Speaker Narvekar's Delaying Tactics

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly Rahul Narvekar, raising objection over the schedule he has proposed for the hearing of the disqualification of MLAs. Speaker is not focusing on disqualification and delaying it, the party has said in the affidavit, sources have said.

Shiv Sena (UBT), through its counsel Sunny Jain, filed a fresh affidavit in the SC on Friday in its ongoing hearing on a petition regarding speeding up the process of hearing of disqualification petitions. During the earlier hearing on the petition, the SC had directed the Speaker to furnish a schedule for the hearing of the petitions. The schedule furnished by the Speaker on Wednesday invited the ire of the Shiv Sena (UBT). 

SC's 2 week timeline to Narvekar

The Supreme Court had given two weeks to the Speaker to furnish the schedule of hearing on the petitions and the next hearing on it was supposed to be on October 3. However, the hearing has now been postponed and is scheduled to be on October 6. “We shall raise the issue of delaying tactics being engaged by the Speaker during the hearing on October 6 before the Supreme Court,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab.

Shiv Sena (UBT) had been pushing for the clubbing of all the petitions pending before the Speaker. While speaking about it, Parab said, “The crime of 40 MLAs of the group under Shinde is the same. Hence, there is no need to hold separate hearings. We shall try to raise issues like these that make the intentions of delaying tactics very clear.”

Shiv Sena (UBT) had moved the Supreme Court last year after a majority of party MLAs switched sides in favour of Eknath Shinde making him the Chief Minister. On April 11, the Supreme Court made it clear that the Speaker is the sole authority to decide the case, but directed him to finish the hearing on the petitions in a reasonable timeframe.