New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the proceedings to disqualify Shiv Sena MLAs from both the factions involved in the crisis in Maharashtra.
Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray faction, said that the Supreme Court said on June 27 that the case concerning the disqualification of 39 MLAs from the Eknath Shinde will take place on July 11. However, the court said the matter will be decided only after hearing all the parties involved in the case.
The court also asked the petitioners to inform the Speaker that no action or hearing should be taken against the MLAs till the time a new bench is constituted for deciding the case.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Governor, assured the Supreme Court that he would inform the Speaker in this regard.
At least four petitions are pending before the apex court concerning the disqualification of MLAs. Two petitions filed by Eknath Shinde’s camp of MLAs challenged the disqualification proceedings initiated by the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on petitions filed by Sunil Prabhu, a Shiv Sena MLA from the Uddhav Thackeray faction.
Additionally, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said the matter will require the constitution of a bench and will take some time to be listed. The development comes after the court had not listed the matters relating to the Maharashtra political crisis on Monday, despite the vacation benches which took up those matters over the last two weeks saying they would be.
The Thackeray-led faction has also challenged the validity of Assembly proceedings held on July 3 and July 4 in which a new Speaker of the House was elected and subsequent proceedings of floor test in which the Shinde-led coalition had proved its majority.
Earlier, on June 27, the top court kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the state assembly till July 11, and also sought responses from the state government and others on their pleas questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.
