Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 17: For the third time in a month the Supreme Court on Tuesday rapped the Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar and gave him a final opportunity to frame a “realistic time schedule” to hear and decide the disqualification petitions on split of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party.
On an assurance from the solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who was representing the speaker that he would personally take up with Mr Narwekar during the Dussehra vacation to work out the time frame, the apex court fixed the next hearing on October 30.
“We are not satisfied with the time schedule. Solicitor General has apprised that during Dussehra breaks he would personally engage with the speaker so as to indicate a firm set of modalities,” the bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said while posting the matter for hearing on October 30.
In the previous hearing, a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had slammed the Speaker for reducing the proceedings to a “charade” by “merrily” deferring hearings. The court accepted Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta’s submission that he would personally intervene with the Speaker during the Dussehra vacations to finalise a firm set of modalities for the pending disqualification proceedings under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. These petitions seek the disqualification of each other’s Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) following split in the two parties.
The Court expressed strong displeasure that Mr Narwekar was giving interviews but not doing his job of giving time for hearing of the disqualification petitions and delaying a decision to make the entire issue infructuous as the state Assembly elections were due next year. It also reservation over Narwekar’s reported claim in an interview that in deciding on the Assembly members’ disqualification proceedings, the speaker was “co-equal to the government” though the apex court was supreme in its own way.
Mehta, however, attempted to pacify the court saying that though he was not aware of Narwekar’s any such interview, he did not think his statement was in anyway intended to make any adverse comments on the apex court.
On October 13, Chief Justice Chandrachud had said the Speaker had disregarded the court’s September 18 order to prepare a schedule to complete the disqualification proceedings against the Shinde camp. The court had even warned that it may even be compelled to set a timeline of two months for the Speaker, who is acting as tribunal under the Tenth Schedule, to complete the proceedings.
“Somebody has to advise the Speaker that he cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court like this… He is acting as an election tribunal when he is hearing disqualification petitions under the Tenth Schedule. He is amenable to the jurisdiction of this court,” the Chief Justice had observed. Sunil Prabhu, a close loyalist of Uddhav Thackeray and Jayant Patil, a close confidant of the NCP chief Sharad Pawar, had filed the petitions against Narwekar seeking Supreme Court’s intervention for early decision on the disqualification proceedings.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A.M. Singhvi for petitioners had urged the court to decide the responsibilities of the Speaker while acting as an election tribunal under the Tenth Schedule. Mr Mehta had in turn blamed the Uddhav Thackeray camp for rushing to the Supreme Court like “school children complaining to the teacher.”
The court, however, had categorically said it would not allow the Speaker to drag the disqualification proceedings till the next election, which would make the Tenth Schedule proceedings against the Shinde camp infructuous.
On May 11, a five-judge Bench had directed the Maharashtra Speaker — in his capacity as tribunal under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution — to hear and decide the disqualification petitions within a “reasonable time.” A total of 56 MLAs are facing disqualification under the Tenth Schedule. There are 34 disqualification petitions pending, waiting for the Speaker to decide.
