NCP moves HC against Maharashtra speaker's decision to not disqualify Sharad Pawar faction MLAs

Mumbai: The NCP led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday challenged in the Bombay High Court the state assembly speaker's decision to not disqualify 10 MLAs from the Sharad Pawar camp.

The petitions requested the high court to quash Speaker Rahul Narwekar's recent order by declaring it bad in law, and also disqualify all the 10 legislators.

The petitions were filed by Anil Patil, chief whip of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, through advocate Shrirang Varma, challenging 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.

A division bench led by Justice G S Kulkarni said it would hear the matter on Wednesday.

Narwekar had last week ruled that the faction led by Ajit Pawar is the real Nationalist Congress Party, but didn't disqualify MLAs of either faction.

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, as per the petitions.

Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar are locked in a turf war after Ajit and 8 MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government in July 2023.

Both the factions were fighting over primarily two issues -- who the party belongs to and whether the 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 Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) as the name for the group.

Narwekar on February 15 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 Election Commission’s order of February 7 granting the name of 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' for the group led by Sharad Pawar will continue till further orders.