Set timeline to decide on petitions against Shinde camp: SC to speaker

It asked solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta to inform the court after two weeks about the stage of the adjudication

New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday fast-tracked the adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and the MLAs who backed him during the rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray in June last year, directing assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to start hearing the petitions within a week and set down a time schedule for deciding them.

Mehta pointed out that speaker is also a constitutional authority, adding it may not be proper to demand a daily itinerary from him. The bench, however, retorted: “But he is a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule and is amenable to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.” (File)

Telling Narwekar that he must “abide by the dignity of the Supreme Court” and follow its May order on deciding the disqualification petitions within a reasonable time, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud ordered that he would issue procedural directions in the matter within a week and will further lay down a fixed timeline to complete the proceedings.

“While this court is cognisant of the need of comity with Speaker, we also expect deference and dignity to the directions issued by this court in exercise of its constitutional power,” the bench, which also included justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted in its order, recording its displeasure against the sluggish pace of adjudication of the bunch of disqualification petitions. While 39 petitions have been filed by the Thackeray faction against Shinde and the MLAs supporting him under the anti-defection law, more than a dozen disqualification petitions remain pending against the MLAs of the Thackeray group too.

It asked solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, who represented Narwekar – a BJP leader -- to inform the court after two weeks about the stage of the adjudication as well as the timeline to dispose of all 56 disqualification petitions.

“It appears nothing has happened after our judgment in May. He has to decide the matter...Speaker cannot say ‘I will hear it in due course’... He must sit down and decide these issues now. We did not set down a timeline in May and only said that he should decide it within a reasonable time... Equally the speaker has to abide by the dignity of the Supreme Court. Four months have gone by and nothing seems to have been done,” said the bench, expressing dismay.

Mehta pointed out that speaker is also a constitutional authority, adding it may not be proper to demand a daily itinerary from him. The bench, however, retorted: “But he is a tribunal under the Tenth Schedule and is amenable to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.”

Upon disqualification, a member of a House loses its membership, and the seat is declared vacant. A consistent line of Supreme Court rulings have held that disqualification relates back to the date when the act of defection takes place. Thus, not only the membership of the 39 Shiv Sena MLAs but also the position of Shinde as CM is at stake.

The court was hearing a petition by Sunil Prabhu, a Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator in Maharashtra assembly, who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena, had filed separate disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution against 39 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Shinde. These petitions accused the rebel MLAs of defying the party whip in the House for election of the speaker and conduct of floor test.

Shiv Sena suffered a vertical split last year when Shinde and 39 other legislators walked out of the party then led by Thackeray and joined hands with the BJP to form the government. By its judgment on May 11, a Constitution bench invalidated the Maharashtra governor’s decision asking then CM Thackeray to face a floor test last year and flagged a flurry of errors during the political drama that toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, but refused to put Thackeray back in the saddle because he voluntarily resigned instead of facing the trust vote in the assembly. At the time, the court left it for Narwekar to decide the disqualification petitions pending against both Shinde and Thackeray groups, rejecting Thackeray camp’s plea that the court should decide the disqualification petitions by itself because of the alleged bias of the BJP leader. By a separate decision on February 17, 2022, the Election Commission of India ruled that Shinde’s faction will inherit Shiv Sena party’s name and its bow-and-arrow symbol.

Representing Prabhu, senior counsel Kapil Sibal on Monday complained that the disqualification proceedings before Narwekar have become a “farce”, and nothing has been done pursuant to the court’s order in May to decide the matter while an “illegal government” was continuing.

“The speaker conducted a hearing on September 14, knowing very well that this court was going to take it up on September 18. And even on that day, he adjourned the hearing on the ground that annexures to certain documents have not been provided for us. Under the rules, he has to supply those documents, and not us,” Sibal, assisted by senior counsel Devadatt Kamat, argued.

Countering his submissions, the SG said that speaker is bound by the rules of procedure and that he cannot be expected to defy the principles of natural justice in a rush to decide.

“Speaker is a constitutional functionary, and his position cannot be ridiculed before any other constitutional authority. You may or may not like speaker but he cannot be ridiculed. He may be acting like a tribunal at the time of deciding disqualification petition but that does not take away the fact that he is a constitutional authority,” Mehta added.

Senior advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Shinde and some other Shiv Sena MLAs, claimed that the delay in the proceedings before the speaker was caused due to voluminous documents placed by the Thackeray group on September 14 and that they also moved a separate application for clubbing all the matters together.

At this, the bench directed that the proceedings be listed before the speaker within one week. “At the time, procedural directions shall be issued for completing the record and setting out time for hearings. Soft copies of annexures shall be served on all the respondents,” it ordered.

The court had on July 14 issued notice to Narwekar’s office on the petition filed by Prabhu. The Thackeray loyalist stated in his plea that since the May 11 decision of the top court, he wrote three reminders to speaker on May 15, 23 May and June 2 to take up the disqualification pleas as not a single hearing has been conducted since the court passed the judgment.

“The speaker in brazen disregard to his constitutional duties as a neutral arbiter, has sought to delay the adjudication of the disqualification petitions, thereby, permitting the illegal continuance of Eknath Shinde as chief minister, against whom the disqualification petitions are pending,” read his petition.