The hearing in the disqualification petitions against 53 MLAs from both factions of Shiv Sena will begin on September 14. Some of the MLAs from both factions have been summoned for the hearing in-person or through their lawyers.
Notice has been issued to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and all the MLAs supporting Shiv Sena, both its factions UBT and Shinde, to attend the hearing in the Vidhan Bhavan.
Speaker of the state legislative assembly, Rahul Narvekar had sent notices on the issue of disqualification to all the 56 Shiv Sena MLAs before the monsoon session and had sought replies from them.
After an extension of about a couple of weeks to file the replies, the members from CM Shinde camp had filed a tempo load of replies, where each individual reply measured about 6,000 pages. Narvekar, then stated that the hearing on the replies shall begin once the replies are thoroughly studied.
The UBT fraction had said in reply, “We have submitted our replies on Tuesday through our lawyers and have presented our sides. We have said in the notice that the whip issued by Gogawale is not applicable to us since his appointment as chief whip itself is illegal. The SC in its order has also termed Gogawale’s appointment as illegal.”
As the process for decision on disqualification petition is a quasi-judicial, after the written replies to the notices, the Speaker Narvekar shall now hear all the MLAs in person.
After the hearing begins, the issues will be framed and again explanations will be sought from the concerned MLAs. This means the decision will still take a long time to come.
As part of the division in Shiv Sena in June last year, 39 MLAs including chief minister Eknath Shinde rebelled resulting in the fall of the Maharashtra Vikas Agadhi government. The Supreme Court, on May 11, asked the Assembly speaker to take a call on the disqualification of the Shiv Sena MLAs and which faction can be called the original party. After the ruling, the speaker had served notices to all 54 MLAs from both the factions asking them to submit their say.