A race against time with English vinglish

The cross-examination in the 'Sena versus Sena' case continued with strenuous translations, leading to concerns about breaching the Supreme Court deadline. The lawyer for the Eknath Shinde faction posed 60 questions to Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu, with translations between English and Marathi causing delays. The disqualification petitions were filed after the split in the Shiv Sena, and the proceedings are being held in a courtroom-like venue. The lawyer alleged that Prabhu was giving evasive replies and intentionally delaying the proceedings. The speaker urged brevity and requested the counsels to avoid repetitions.

The second day in the fourth phase of hearing the disqualification petitions in the ‘Sena versus Sena’ case was marked by strenuous translations, which led an irked speaker Rahul Narwekar stating that the Supreme Court deadline might be breached if the hearing continued at such a slow pace.

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In the cross-examination at Vidhan Bhavan’s central hall, Eknath Shinde faction’s lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani posed 60 questions over two days to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief whip Sunil Prabhu. Jethmalani chose to interrogate in English, while Prabhu responded in Marathi, which had to be translated in English, sometimes by the speaker himself.

Following the split in the Shiv Sena in June 2022, rival factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Shinde filed disqualification petitions against each other’s legislators. The Thackeray faction alleged that Shinde and his 39 MLAs have violated provisions of the anti-defection law and hence should be disqualified. The faction scaled up the issue to SC, which set December 31 as deadline for Narwekar to give his verdict.

The proceedings are being held in a manner similar to a court of law with the speaker in the role of a tribunal. The legislature’s secretariat has created a courtroom-kind of venue, complete with a witness box where Prabhu stood to face a barrage of questions from Jethmalani.

Jethmalani questioned about the date of the whip -- June 21 – issued by Prabhu, which was a day after party MLAs started joining Shinde. He then wanted to know the names of the legislators who went missing. Further questions were related to Prabhu’s signature on various documents and their veracity, the communication between him and his party chief Uddhav Thackeray etc. A translator, specially appointed on Tuesday after Prabhu complained about the language barrier, translated the questions in Marathi. Thereafter, the answers in Marathi were translated by Narwekar and verified with the counsels.

In the course of interrogation, Jethmalani, in a raised voice, alleged that Prabhu was deliberately dodging questions by giving evasive replies. He even said that the whip issued by him was forged. “The disqualification is based on the whip issued by Prabhu on June 21 last year, but prima facie it appears to be forged. It was never served on the MLAs,” he said.

A race against time with English vinglish

Jethmalani also said Prabhu was deliberately giving lengthy replies to delay the proceedings. At one point, he requested to skip the translation of Prabhu’s replies to save time. However, a counsel from his own team differed, saying a proper translation was required. After making a comment on the likely breach of the SC deadline, Narwekar said, “Barring holidays between December 25 and 27, I have scheduled daily hearing. We barely have 16 days. This is like running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.”

Narwekar requested brevity from counsels and told Prabhu not to go into irrelevant information. He also asked Jethmalani to avoid repetitions.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anil Desai said, “SC has set the guidelines. The counsel indulged in the irrelevant arguments and references.”

Sanjay Shirsat, legislator from the Shinde faction said, “Prabhu could not reply to many relevant questions related to the whip and its veracity.”