Rahul Narwekar to meet Prez Droupadi Murmu, extend invitation for state legislature centenary celebration

Rahul Narwekar/ Pic: Ashish Raje

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar is scheduled to meet with President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Monday, according to a PTI report. He will be extending an invitation for the centenary celebration of the state legislature and to address other pertinent matters, the report added.

Narwekar informed PTI about the meeting, stating, "I will meet the President to extend an invitation for the centenary year celebration of the state legislature and discuss other relevant issues."

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Maharashtra speaker, off lately, has been in the news owing to the pending decision in the disqualification pleas filed by the rival Shiv Sena factions. Reportedly, the Supreme Court, on October 30, had directed him to make a decision on the cross-petitions submitted by the two factions and the court set a deadline for this decision. They said the matter should be concluded by December 31.

The delay in the resolution of the disqualification petitions concerning Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Shiv Sena MLAs loyal to him had drawn sharp criticism from the apex court. During a previous hearing, the court said that the proceedings should not be treated as a mere formality and that the orders of the court should not be circumvented.

According to the reports, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that procedural wranglings should not be permitted to delay a decision on the disqualification petitions. He also directed the speaker to decide on the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) pleas seeking the disqualification of nine MLAs of the Ajit Pawar group by January 31, 2024.

Reportedly, the bench in its order had also said that they wanted to give Narwekar reasonable time; they said that the speaker has been given time till December for group A (Shiv Sena) and by January 31, 2024 for the NCP.

The court had previously come down heavily on Narwekar over his delay in deciding the pleas against CM Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena MLAs loyal to him. The court had reportedly told him that the proceedings cannot be reduced to a charade. He was further told that he cannot "defeat" court orders.