The Supreme Court has agreed to list a petition by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) challenging the Maharashtra Speaker’s decision to recognize the Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP. The Speaker had rejected pleas for disqualification of breakaway group MLAs who joined the Sena (Shinde)-BJP coalition government under the anti-defection law. Senior advocate made a mention of the petition before a bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and said Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s decision on NCP rebel MLAs is worse than what he had done in the Sena split case.

The Supreme Court has agreed to list the petitions next week before an appropriate bench. Narwekar on Thursday had ruled that the Ajit Pawar-led group was the real Nationalist Congress Party among the two factions which emerged in the party in July 2023. He said, ‘The NCP constitution and the leadership structure of the party does not provide any clue to decide which is the real faction, hence, I have gone by the third yardstick which is legislative majority to decide the issue. The Sharad Pawar faction hasn’t challenged the claim of legislative majority enjoyed by the Ajit Pawar faction.’

The Sharad Pawar group said that the NCP was founded, created, and taken to the present height politically through the efforts of the founder and that it was preposterous on the Speaker’s part to assume that the Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP. It alleged that the Speaker has rendered the provisions of Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) otiose by his ruling and put premium on defection.