The Supreme Court today issued notice to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on a plea by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena accusing him of choosing to deliberately delay the decision on petitions seeking the disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other MLAs who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, and comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Mishra issued a notice and sought a response to the plea from the Maharashtra Assembly’s office in two weeks. Senior advocate Devadutt Kamat, appearing for the petitioners, told the bench that the “Speaker has been sitting on these disqualification proceedings” but had sent out notice after the writ was filed. The petition said any unreasonable delay on the part of the Speaker in deciding the petitions for disqualification contributes to and perpetuates the constitutional sin of defection committed by the delinquent members.

Earlier this month, Shiv Sena (UBT) approached the top court seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to hear the disqualification petitions expeditiously.