New Delhi: Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar has decided to conduct an official hearing on disqualification petitions against the MLAs of the Shinde group on October 13. He took the decision after hearing arguments from Shiv Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray following a Supreme Court directive, advocate Anil Sakhare who is representing the CM said on Monday.
The Shiv Sena split in June last year following a rebellion by Shinde, who went on to become CM after unseating the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
Under anti-defection laws, the Thackeray faction had filed for the disqualification of several MLAs, including Shinde. Disqualification petitions have been filed against 39 MLAs, Sakhare informed.
The decision comes after the Supreme Court last week asked Rahul Narwekar to set a timeline for deciding pleas for disqualification of MLAs and set down a time schedule to decide disqualification pleas.
The apex court had granted one week to the speaker to decide on the timeline.
Speaking to reporters, Sakhare said, "Speaker Narwekar heard our arguments as we are opposed to clubbing of all the petitions filed before him. Our demand is to conduct independent hearings of those petitions.”
"The Speaker may announce the schedule of the hearings in the next couple of days. The first hearing will commence on October 13. Official arguments will be made regarding the hearing of all the petitions together or separately," he added.
He further stated that there was no official hearing during the day and only the procedural part was decided.
Responding to a query on the issue, Sakhare said the Thackeray faction wants to club all petitions together and conduct a hearing, whereas the Shinde group is against such a proposal.
Notably, after the split in the Shiv Sena, the party name and symbol were given to the Shinde group, while the faction led by Thackeray was christened Shiv Sena (UBT).