The Supreme Court has extended the deadline for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to deliver a verdict on disqualification petitions, including those against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his loyal MLAs. The apex court, in its order, emphasized that the Maharashtra speaker is entrusted with the final decision on pleas seeking the disqualification of MLAs within Eknath Shinde's camp, including the Chief Minister himself.
Initially directed to conclude the proceedings by December 31, 2023, Narwekar sought additional time to review the pending petitions. The Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, remained resolute in its stance that the speaker's verdict must be delivered by January 10, 2024.
Chief Justice Chandrachud stated, “The speaker has indicated that the proceedings will be closed on December 20, and the speaker had sought a reasonable extension of time. Bearing in mind the time limit laid out earlier, we grant an extension of time till January 10, 2024, for the speaker to deliver judgment.”
The petitions seeking the disqualification of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and the MLAs in his camp were filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP. This legal saga began on September 18, when the Supreme Court directed the speaker to provide a timetable for adjudicating the disqualification petitions against Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs aligned with him, who had collaborated with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.
Eknath Shinde, along with several other MLAs from the Shiv Sena, rebelled against the Uddhav Thackeray government and joined the BJP to establish a new government in Maharashtra. This political maneuver resulted in Uddhav Thackeray's resignation from the post of CM, leading to a split within the Shiv Sena into two factions, one led by Thackeray and the other by Shinde.