Top court pushes deadline for disqualification
NEW DELHI: Haste can lead to undesirable consequences, the Supreme Court on Monday told the deputy speaker of the Maharashtra assembly, while protecting a group of rebel Shiv Sena legislators led by dissident MLA Eknath Shinde from the disqualification proceedings till July 11.
The court also told the state government to ensure the safety of all the dissident legislators and their families.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala virtually restrained deputy speaker Narhari Zariwal from disqualifying the 16 rebel MLAS until the Supreme Court examines whether Zariwal had the authority to entertain the disqualification petitions when a motion seeking his own removal was pending. Shinde and others sought Zariwal’s removal on June 21. Four days later, Zariwal issued disqualification notices to the 16 dissident MLAS, including Shinde.“we have to determine the very competence of the speaker to decide. If we don’t say anything today, that would mean the speaker is competent to go ahead. Today, we have to ensure the matter doesn’t become infructuous,” said the bench, extending the time for Shinde and 15 others to file replies to the notice issued by the deputy speaker till July 12.
As per the June 25 disqualification notices, the MLAS were asked to submit their written replies to the disqualification notices by June 27. But the bench held that the disqualification proceedings must be “kept in abeyance” for the time being since there are questions surrounding Zariwal’s authority in initiating the action. “Sometimes haste also leads to unnecessary and undesirable consequences... we cannot ignore their (petitioners’) contentions. We have a constitution bench judgment saying something very close to the facts of this case...status quo will have to be maintained,” observed the bench, fixing July 11 as the next date of hearing.
Issuing notices to Zariwal, Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu, and legislature party leader Ajay Chaudhary on the petitions by Shinde and 15 others, the court asked them to file their counter affidavits within five days, following which Shinde and his loyalists could file their replies.
Acting on two writ petitions filed by Shinde and 15 other rebel MLAS, the top court asked Zariwal to explain if he could deal with the disqualification proceedings until a question related to his removal is decided, besides asking his office to put all the documents on record relating to the notice served on him for his removal. The bench further accepted the plea by senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, who appeared for Shinde and others, for ensuring protection to the MLAS and their families in the wake of perceived threats to their life and properties. Kaul said that he is pressing for protection of not only 16 MLAS who are the petitioners before the court but for all the 39 legislators in the Shinde camp. At this, the court asked the Maharashtra government to ensure protection of 39 dissident MLAS and their family members. The bench recorded the undertaking by Maharashtra government’s standing counsel Rahul Chitnis that “no harm shall be caused to the life, liberty and properties of the 39 dissidents”.
Maharashtra has been facing political imbroglio since last week after Shinde went to Surat in Gujarat with some of the rebels. The number in the camp has now swelled to 39 — more than the 37 required to break away from the 55-strong Shiv Sena in the state assembly without attraction censure under the anti-defection law. The Shinde faction is presently holed up in a hotel at Guwahati in Assam. Both Gujarat and Assam are ruled by the BJP.