SC raps Maha speaker over delay in disqualification pleas

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, saying that he's reduced the adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and lawmakers who backed him last year to a "charade", and making it clear that he must decide these petitions "well before" the next assembly polls, which are almost a year away.

- Utkarsh Anand

Disapproving of the timeline of disqualification proceedings set down by Narwekar a week ago, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud directed him to submit a revised timeline by October 17, adding the court will put in place a schedule on its own if Narwekar's schedule does not indicate a serious effort to decide the matter quickly. The bench, which also included justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was irate at Narwekar's schedule of disqualification proceedings, according to which, cross-examination and recording to evidence will be concluded by November and the speaker will subsequently decide when to place the proceedings for final hearing.

Narwekar's note didn't mention the outer limit by which the proceedings had to get over, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat, representing the Uddhav Thackeray camp - the petitioner in the matter-complained, adding that the endeavour seemed to render these proceedings meaningless since the elections in Maharashtra are due in October 2024.