Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra minister Anil Parab on Tuesday took a jibe at state assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar over the delay in adjudicating on MLA disqualification petitions, saying the presiding officer would not move forward on the issue without inviting a rap from the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court granted Narwekar a final opportunity to give it a realistic time-frame for deciding the cross-petitions filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs following a split in the party last year. The top court said the disqualification petitions have to be adjudicated expeditiously.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi after the SC hearing in the matter, Parab said, “The Maharashtra legislative assembly speaker is under delusion that Supreme Court orders do not apply to him. He would not understand it until he gets hit by the Supreme Court’s baton (danduka in Marathi).”
Asked about Narwekar sticking to his old timetable of conducting hearings on the disqualification petitions despite strong SC observations over the delay in the last hearing, the former state minister said it means he is not paying heed to the Supreme Court.
“The way the speaker is making statements in public, it seems he is under a false impression that Supreme Court’s orders do not apply to him. I do not know who is giving such an advice to him,” said the opposition party leader.
Parab said the speaker must abide by all directives of the apex court.
“The way we understand the law, a speaker is in the role of a tribunal. Such a tribunal falls under the purview of the Supreme Court. So, he must follow all decisions of the apex court. There should no confusion about it,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader stated.
The SC had earlier come down hard on Narwekar over the delay in deciding the pleas filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs loyal to him, saying the speaker cannot defeat the orders of the top court.
Similar disqualification petitions have also been filed by the Shinde bloc against lawmakers owing allegiance to Thackeray.
On September 18, the top court had directed the speaker to spell out the timeline for adjudication of the petitions.
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