Maharashtra assembly speaker deliberately delaying decision: Prithviraj Chavan on Sena disqualification plea

Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the Supreme Court has passed another stricture against speaker Narwekar, indicating clearly that he is deliberately delaying a decision on the Shiv Sena split that happened one-and-a-half years ago.

This is the second time the apex court has warned the speaker on violating the Constitution, he told PTI. Unfortunately, there is nothing that the Supreme Court can do. Anti-defection law gives adjudicating powers to the speaker, who is appointed by a political party and remains a member of that party and he is bound by the interest of the political party to which he belongs, Chavan said.

Therefore, the 10th Schedule of the anti-defection law amended in 2003 is ab initio flawed and needs to be scrapped in toto. The CJI has the authority to initiate proceedings against the speaker. I don’t know whether the Supreme Court will utilise its inherent power to protect the Constitution and the rule of law, he said.

Supreme Court on Friday came down hard on the Maharashtra assembly speaker for the delay in deciding the plea for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs, saying the speaker cannot defeat the orders of the top court.

Somebody has to advise the Speaker that he cannot defeat the orders of the Supreme Court, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to apprise the court about the timeline for deciding the issue.