Bombay HC issues notice to Assembly Speaker on Ajit Pawar faction’s plea

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar and 10 MLAs belonging to Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction on petitions challenging the Speaker’s decision to not disqualify them.

Anil Patil, chief whip of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, had filed two petitions challenging the Speaker’s decision to not disqualify 10 MLAs from the Sharad Pawar camp.

A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla on Wednesday also issued notice to the Maharashtra legislature secretariat and directed all the respondents to file their affidavits to the petitions.

The HC posted the matter for further hearing on March 14.

Patil in his petitions requested the high court to quash the Speaker’s recent order by declaring it bad in law, and also disqualify all the 10 legislators.

The petitions challenged the “legality, propriety and correctness” of the order passed by Narwekar dismissing the disqualification petitions filed against the MLAs belonging to the Sharad Pawar faction.

Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar are locked in a turf war after Ajit and eight MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government in July 2023. Both the factions were fighting over primarily two issues — to whom the party belongs and whether MLAs from the opposite faction attract disqualification under Section 2(1)(A) of the Tenth Schedule.