SC seeks responses of Dy CM Ajit Pawar on plea of Sharad Pawar faction against speaker’s decision

New Delhi, Jul 29 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from Ajit Pawar and his 40 MLAs on a plea of the Sharad Pawar faction challenging Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s decision declaring the group led by the deputy chief minister as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Sharad Pawar faction, that the plea needed urgent hearing keeping in mind the short remnant tenure of the state assembly. The term of the state assembly expires in November this year.

The bench said it will hear the plea filed by Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad, lawmakers of the Sharad Pawar faction, just after it has heard a similar petition of the rival Uddahav Thackeray camp.

The Thackeray group has filed a similar petition contesting the speaker’s decision in favour of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his MLAs.

“We will issue notice, all objections including on grounds of maintainability will be decided at final disposal. Liberty is granted to serve the other respondents with ‘dasti’ (a mode of serving notices),” the CJI said.

On February 15, Rahul Narwekar had held that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government, was the real Nationalist Congress Party.

He had rejected the disqualification petitions filed by the rival groups seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs.

Anti-defection law provisions in the Constitution’s tenth schedule cannot be used to stifle internal dissent, the Speaker had noted while also holding that the Ajit Pawar group had “overwhelming legislative majority” of 41 out of 53 MLAs when the NCP split in July 2023.