The Supreme Court on Tuesday again expressed its displeasure in the progress of the Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification petitions and called for expeditious adjudication. The SC had come down hard on the Maharashtra assembly speaker, saying the proceedings cannot be a “charade” and he cannot “defeat” its orders. An irked CJI had said a decision on disqualification pleas has to be taken before the next assembly elections otherwise the whole process will become infructuous. The next state assembly polls will likely be held around September-October 2024.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Tuesday told SC that he would personally engage with Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar during the Dussehra vacation.  The SC has posted a hearing of pleas on Shiv Sena MLAs’ disqualification row for October 30.

Earlier on September 18, the bench had directed the speaker to spell out the timetable for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022. The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde faction. The Thackeray faction had moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a time-bound manner.

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