New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday asked Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to decide Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) petition seeking disqualification of 9 MLAs of Ajit Pawar group by January 31, 2024. The petition filed by NCP leader Jayant Patil (Sharad Pawar faction) seeking a decision on pending defection petitions was listed for hearing along with Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu's (Uddhav Thackeray faction) plea for hearing by the apex court on Monday.
The top court has directed that the Maharashtra Speaker should conclude the hearing in NCP defection petitions by January 31. The Supreme Court on October 13 came down heavily on Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Narwekar for the delay in hearing and deciding the disqualification petitions filed by the NCP and the Shiv Sena rival factions.
Following a split in the party recently, NCP leader Patil had filed a petition in the apex court against the delay by the Maharashtra Speaker in hearing the defection pleas. The apex court had said that the Speaker should take a decision in the matter at least before the next Lok Sabha elections and should not render the issue infructuous by delaying it. The CJI had conveyed displeasure regarding the Speaker's conduct and warned that the court would pass a peremptory order setting down a timeline if a hearing schedule is not put in place. (with agency inputs)
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