Earlier this week, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena had sought disqualification of 14 MLAs who were part of Thackeray’s faction.
The Supreme Court asked newly appointed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar not to take any decisions on the plea regarding the disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs of former chief minister Uddav Thackeray’s faction.
The court also asked the Solicitor General appearing for the Maharashtra government to convey its directions to Narwekar.
“Mr (Tushar) Mehta (Solicitor General who was appearing for the Governor), you please inform the assembly speaker not to take any hearing. Let us see, we will hear the matter,” the bench Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said.
Earlier this week, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena had sought disqualification of 14 MLAs who were part of Thackeray’s camp. Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu had also sought suspension from the Assembly of Shinde and 15 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification pleas are pending, saying it was “fully conscious” of the issue.
On June 29, the Maharashtra Governor had ordered a floor test leading to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to rush to the top court seeking its deferment. The bench had refused to stay the direction of the Governor after which the beleaguered chief minister Uddhav Thackeray resigned.
After Shinde was sworn in as the Chief Minister on June 30, Prabhu moved the top court seeking his suspension and of 15 rebels on various grounds, alleging that they were “acting as pawns of the BJP, thereby committing the constitutional sin of defection”.
Source:indianexpress.com