Rahul Narvekar (left); Shiv Sena leaders met the deputy speaker on Monday. (File/News18)
Sunil Prabhu said, “We have submitted a request letter to the deputy speaker to expedite the process of hearing the disqualification petitions against the 16 MLAs. We expect him to take a decision within 15 days.”
Leaders of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) on Monday met Deputy Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Narhari Jirwal and requested for an early hearing on the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Speaking to the media after landing in Mumbai, Speaker Rahul Narvekar said he would “try to take a decision as soon as possible but cannot deny natural justice to anyone”.
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In a recent ruling on the Maharashtra power struggle, the Supreme Court ordered Narvekar to decide the Shiv Sena UBT’s disqualification petition against Shinde and 15 others.
When Shinde went against Thackeray with 39 of his supporting MLAs, 16 MLAs disobeyed whip Sunil Prabhu’s orders, following which a disqualification petition was filed against him in the court. Later, the Thackeray faction filed another disqualification petition against the 23 Shiv Sena MLAs before the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker.
According to Sunil Prabhu, who was recognized as a legal whip by the Supreme Court, “Today, the speaker was not there, so we handed over a request letter to the deputy speaker asking him to expedite the process of hearing the disqualification petitions against the 16 Where is it? Legislator. We are hopeful that he will take a decision within 15 days. We have also attached a copy of the Supreme Court order with that letter.”
Narvekar said, “We have to follow the due process. We will try to take a decision as soon as possible, but while doing so, we cannot deprive anyone of natural justice. The court has talked about the whip issue in its order. But the opposition cannot pressurize me. We have to follow the entire process to arrive at a conclusion.”
Narvekar feels that the Election Commission and the Supreme Court took a long time before giving their verdict.
“Now SC has given responsibilityme to decide the disqualification petition. We will study the matter and take a decision accordingly. We can call both the parties to explain their stand. There can also be counter enquiry. Once we have enough material, we will take a decision within the framework of the Constitution.
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Narvekar said that the process of the matter had already started when the petition was filed in his office.
According to Narvekar, the key to this hearing is to decide who was the real Shiv Sena when Bharat Gogawale was appointed as the whip, as the Supreme Court has quashed the appointment.