NCP disqualification matter: Bombay HC issues notice to Maharashtra speaker on Ajit Pawar faction 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.

Patil's counsel Mukul Rohatgi on Wednesday told the court that the major findings made by the speaker were in Ajit Pawar's favour except the part where the 10 MLAs were not disqualified.

"The speaker has ruled that the Ajit Pawar-led NCP is the real political party. Even the Election Commission had ruled in Ajit Pawar's favour. But still the 10 MLAs (from Sharad Pawar's faction) were not disqualified," Rohatgi said.

The actions of the 10 MLAs were against the interests of the party and hence they ought to have been disqualified, the senior counsel argued.

"The speaker has wrongly held that this was a case of internal strife within the party. But that is not our case. This is not just a case of internal dispute," Rohatgi said.

The bench, after hearing the arguments briefly, said it would issue notices to the respondents and direct them to file affidavits and hear the matter further.

Narwekar last week held that the faction led by Ajit Pawar is the real NCP, but didn't disqualify MLAs of either faction.

Patil in his petitions claimed the speaker has wrongly arrived at the conclusion that the split in the NCP was intra-party dissent.

As the speaker has ruled that the NCP led by Ajit Pawar is the real political party, then the disqualification petitions should have been allowed too, he said.

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 primarily fighting over 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.

The Election Commission on February 7 decided the dispute in favour of Ajit Pawar, recognising the faction led by him as the 'real NCP' and also allotted it the party's 'clock' symbol.

The EC later granted the name 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar for the group led by Sharad Pawar.

On February 15, Narwekar held that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar was the real NCP and that the anti-defection provisions in the Constitution cannot be used to stifle internal dissent.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed that the EC's order of granting the name 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' for the group led by Sharad Pawar will continue till further orders.