The Supreme Court directed the Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar on Monday, January 29, to decide on the disqualification petitions filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) against the Ajit Pawar faction. The bench, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, agreed to extend the time until February 15, 2024.
On October 30 last year, the apex court had directed the Speaker to decide as per the tenth schedule of the Constitution by January 31, 2024. Two days ahead of the expiry of the deadline, the Speaker approached the Supreme Court seeking three weeks' additional time, as reported by Live Law.
The Supreme Court set the deadline in a writ petition filed by an NCP Sharad Pawar group member seeking to direct the Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the disqualification petitions filed against the Ajit Pawar group. The issue erupted after a group led by Ajit Pawar departed from the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and joined hands with the BJP and Shiv Sena. Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, and eight other NCP MLAs took oath as Ministers in the Eknath Shinde-led government in July 2023.