MLAs disqualification row: Ahead of hearing in SC, Maha Speaker heads to Delhi

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar Sunday left for New Delhi where he is scheduled to attend a couple of meetings including one with Solicitor General Tushar MehtaSpeaking to reporters at the Mumbai airport while leaving for the national capital Narwekar said ldquoThere are a couple of meetings scheduled in Delhi including one with the Solicitor General SG It is a scheduled visit to DelhirdquoNews agency PTI reported that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday pleas filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena and the Sharad Pawar bloc of the NCP seeking a direction to Narwekar to expeditiously decide disqualification petitions against some MLAsAsked about it Narwekar said ldquoI will take legal advice and then decide on itrdquoTo a query on notices to NCP MLAs over the disqualification petitions the speaker said ldquoIt was part of the procedure I issued the notices after scrutiny of the submitted disqualification petitions was overrdquoOn October 17 an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said We are not satisfied with the time schedule SG has apprised that during Dussehra breaks he would personally engage with the speaker so as to indicate a firm set of modalitiesThe apex court had earlier come down hard on the speaker over the delay in deciding the pleas filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs loyal to him saying the speaker could not defeat the orders of the top courtAlso read Mumbais air quality holds in moderate category with AQI at 139Similar disqualification petitions have also been filed by the Shinde bloc against lawmakers owing allegiance to ThackerayOn September 18 the top court directed the speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the disqualification petitions against Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs owing allegiance to him who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022The court had asked the solicitor general to apprise the bench of the time schedule to be fixed by the speaker for deciding the pleas for disqualification of 56 MLAs including lawmakers belonging to the Shinde factionThe Thackeray faction moved the apex court in July seeking direction to the state assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions in a timebound mannerThe plea by Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray MLA Sunil Prabhu who as the chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs in 2022 alleged Speaker Narwekar was deliberately delaying the adjudication despite the verdict of the apex courtLater a separate plea was filed by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party NCP for a direction to the assembly speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions against Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and party MLAs loyal to him