New Delhi: Supreme Court is likely to hear the issue of disqualification plea against 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led faction today., reported news agency PTI. The rebel legislators were given time till July 12 to respond to the disqualification notices given to them. On July 10, Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal had responded to the notice issued by the top court on the 48 hour-time period given to the 16 MLAs to respond to the disqualification notice.
The Deputy Speaker said there was no illegality in it and the timeline for filing of reply is purely discretionary, as per the PTI report.
"There is absolutely no illegality in 48 hours being given to the Petitioners to respond to the disqualification petitions. First of all 48 hours' notice was given in the first instance. The Petitioner never approached me and sought time.
"That apart, this Hon'ble Court in Shrimant Balasaheb apart from holding that the timeline for filing of reply is purely discretionary, has categorically also held that the number of days is immaterial and what matters is whether the respondent has been given sufficient and reasonable time to file their replies," the affidavit said, quoted by the news agency.
A day earlier on Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said that he has full faith in the judiciary adding that the apex court will decide today as to who the real Shiv Sena belongs to. He said that he was not aware of the decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad, but had to accept that as they were in the cabinet.
Disqualification notices were issued to 16 rebel MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led faction by Maharashtra Deputy Speaker on June 25 when the faction was camping in Assam’s Guwahati city.
Along with Eknath Shinde the other 15 MLAs who were issued the disqualification notices are — Bharat Gogawale, Prakash R Surve, Tanhaji Jaywant Savant, Mahesh S Shinde, Abdul Sattar, Sandeepan A Bhumre, Sanjay P Sirhsat, Yamini Y Jadhav, Anil K Babar, Latabai C Sonawane, Ramesh N Bornare, Sanjay B Raimulkar, Chimanrao R Patil, Balaji D Kalyankar and Balaji P Kinilkar.