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By Sahil Joshi: The Supreme Court has asked the Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly, Rahul Narwekar, to decide the fate of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who were accused of anti-party activities.
The notices of disqualification were issued by Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal in the absence of the Speaker. The disqualification petition was filed by Sunil Prabhu, the Shiv Sena party whip appointed by Uddhav Thackeray, on 23 June 2022, after the MLAs revolted against Thackeray and went to Guwahati.
The Supreme Court refused to use the special powers under article 226 and article 32 as requested by Uddhav Thackeray camp and said that “there are no extraordinary circumstances in the instant case that warrant the exercise of jurisdiction by the court to adjudicate the disqualification petition” and handed over the baton of these disqualification petitions to the Speaker with rider that speaker “must decide the disqualification within reasonable period”.
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This means that the Supreme Court expects that the Speaker should decide upon the disqualifications as early as possible and not take indefinite time or should not wait till the tenure of present Assembly to get over which allow the petition to get dissolved.
In addition, the Supreme Court has also interpreted the 10th Schedule with respect to the appointment of the whip.
The dispute was whether the whip of the party is chosen by the majority of MLAs in the legislative wing of the party or the whip is appointed by the political party.
The Shinde group was claiming the former, while the Uddhav group contested it. Rahul Narwekar, after becoming Speaker, had accepted the Shinde group’s claim and had accepted the appointment of Bharat Gogawale, a Shinde camp MLA, as the whip of the Shiv Sena legislative party.
The Supreme Court has clearly said in the judgment that “The Speaker did not attempt to identify which of the two persons were appointed by the ‘political party’.”
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The court has also said that the Speaker should have conducted an independent inquiry based on the rules and regulations of the political party. Therefore, the Court has asked the Speaker to determine the whip and leader duly recognized by the Shiv Sena political party, not the legislative party.
Now, it is up to the Speaker to determine who is the whip appointed by the political party and who the political party is, whether it is Uddhav Thackeray or, as later decided by the Election Commission, the Shinde camp.
While pronouncing the judgment, the Supreme Court has also made it clear that the decision of the Election Commission has prospective effect, so the declaration that one of the groups (in this case, Shinde) is the political party takes effect from the date of the decision. The decision of the Election Commission came into February 2023, and the Speaker will have to determine who was the political party in June 2022. This would be the key for the decision on disqualification petition by Uddhav camp. If the Speaker decides that the Shinde camp even then (in June 2022) was the Shiv Sena political party, the Uddhav camp will lose its disqualification plea.
But Rahul Narwekar seems to be not in hurry.
“Decision on disqualification of MLAs will be given in a reasonable time. I cannot specify how much time this procedure will take. First, I’ll have to take decision on who is the representative of political party as directed by the Supreme Court,” Rahul Narwekar said while speaking to India Today.
Meanwhile, both Shiv Sena camps are claiming victory, with the Uddhav camp hopeful that their legislative party will be decided.
Shiv Sena UBT leader Anil Parab said, “The Supreme Court mentioned that ECI cannot just rely on majority in legislative party. This indicates that our SLP is about to be decided. The Supreme Court underlined that the Election Commission must look into organisational support as well as the party Constitution.”
However, the future of the 16 MLAs is in the hands of the Speaker, who belongs to the BJP.
The decision of the Speaker will be crucial, as it will determine whether the 16 MLAs will be disqualified or not. While the Speaker has not specified how much time this procedure will take, he has said that the decision will be given in a reasonable time. In conclusion, the ball is now in the Speaker’s court.
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