Observing that the sanctity of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution should be maintained, the Supreme Court on Monday directed Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the cross-petitions filed by the rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other's MLAs by December 31.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said procedural wranglings should not be permitted to delay a decision on the disqualification petitions.
The top court also asked the assembly speaker to decide the NCP petition seeking disqualification of nine MLAs of the Ajit Pawar group by January 31, 2024.
"We are concerned that the sanctity of the 10th Schedule must be maintained. Otherwise, we are throwing these provisions to the wind," it said.
The 10th Schedule of the Constitution is designed to prevent defection of elected and nominated members of Parliament and state legislatures from their political parties and contains stringent provisions against it.
"Procedural wranglings should not be permitted to delay the petitions. We direct that proceedings shall be concluded and directions passed by December 31, 2023," the bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said.
At the outset, the bench voiced displeasure when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed it that the speaker required time till February 29, 2024 to decide the disqualification petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions of the Shiv Sena.
Mehta submitted it will be unrealistic to expect a decision before January 31 due to the Diwali vacations and the Winter session of the assembly.
"Kindly list it in January and see the progress," he urged the bench.
"Mr Solicitor, we don't want that these proceedings keep wrangling till elections are announced," the court told him.
Mehta responded, saying there was no difficulty in deciding the petitions except for Diwali and the assembly session.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Ajit Pawar group, opposed setting a deadline for deciding the NCP petitions, saying they were filed in July and September this year.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Sharad Pawar bloc, said only the petitions filed against nine NCP MLAs in July this year be considered at this stage.
The bench then said in its order,"We have to give some reasonable time. We have given speaker till December for group A (Shiv Sena) and by January 31, 2024 for NCP." The delay in deciding the disqualification petitions against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs loyal had come under strict scrutiny by the apex court which came down hard on the assembly speaker at the last hearing, saying the proceedings cannot be reduced to a charade and that he cannot "defeat" its orders.
The top court was hearing two petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP, seeking a direction to the speaker to expeditiously decide disqualification proceedings against some MLAS.
Earlier on September 18, the bench had directed the speaker to spell out the time table for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form 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.
The Thackeray faction had moved the apex court in July seeking a direction to the speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.
The plea by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena had filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022, alleged Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication despite an apex court verdict asking him to decide them within a "reasonable" time.
Later, a separate plea was filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a direction to the speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and party MLAs loyal to him.
