Today (21 Feb 2024), in response to petitions challenging the speaker’s decision not to disqualify them, the Bombay High Court issued notices to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar and 10 MLAs associated with Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction.
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Maharashtra: Today, the Bombay High Court served notices to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar and 10 MLAs affiliated with Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction in response to petitions contesting the speaker’s choice not to disqualify them.
Anil Patil, the chief whip of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, lodged two petitions disputing the speaker’s ruling to refrain from disqualifying 10 MLAs from the Sharad Pawar group.
A division bench comprising Justices G S Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla also directed the Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat to file their affidavits in response to the petitions.
The HC posted the matter for further hearing on March 14.
In his petitions, Patil urged the high court to invalidate the speaker’s recent order, deeming it legally flawed, and to disqualify all 10 legislators.
The petitions contested the “legality, appropriateness, and accuracy” of Narwekar’s decision to dismiss the disqualification petitions filed against the MLAs affiliated with the Sharad Pawar faction.
During Wednesday’s court proceedings, Patil’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi argued that the speaker’s primary findings favored Ajit Pawar’s faction, except for the aspect where the 10 MLAs were not disqualified.
“The speaker determined that the Ajit Pawar-led NCP is the genuine political party. Even the Election Commission ruled in favor of Ajit Pawar. Nevertheless, the 10 MLAs (from Sharad Pawar’s faction) were not disqualified,”
-Rohatgi stated.
The senior counsel contended that the actions of the 10 MLAs were detrimental to the party’s interests, thus warranting their disqualification.
“The speaker erroneously deemed this to be a case of internal conflict within the party. However, that is not our contention. This goes beyond mere internal disagreement,”
-Rohatgi emphasized.
After briefly deliberating on the arguments, the bench stated its intention to issue notices to the respondents, requesting them to submit affidavits before further proceedings.
Last week, Narwekar determined that the faction led by Ajit Pawar represents the authentic NCP but refrained from disqualifying MLAs from either faction.
In his petitions, Patil alleged that the speaker erroneously concluded that the division within the NCP constituted intra-party dissent. Given the speaker’s ruling that the NCP led by Ajit Pawar is the legitimate political entity, Patil argued that the disqualification petitions should have been accepted.
Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar have been embroiled in a power struggle since Ajit, along with eight MLAs, joined the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government in July 2023. Both factions were primarily engaged in a dispute over two key issues: the ownership of the party and whether MLAs from the opposing faction are subject to disqualification under Section 2(1)(A) of the Tenth Schedule.
On February 7, the Election Commission resolved the dispute in favor of Ajit Pawar, recognizing his faction as the “authentic NCP” and allocating the party’s ‘clock’ symbol to it. Subsequently, the EC designated the group led by Sharad Pawar as ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar.’
On February 15, Narwekar determined that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar was the legitimate NCP. He also stated that the constitutional anti-defection provisions cannot be employed to suppress internal dissent.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered that the EC’s decision to grant the name ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ to the faction led by Sharad Pawar will remain in effect until further notice.
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