Recently, the Supreme Court said that it seems difficult to take an early decision on the disqualification petition of Shiv Sena MLAs in Maharashtra. Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar will announce within two-three days how he will proceed with the hearing on this petition.

Now the next hearing in this case will be on October 13. After the split in Shiv Sena last year, the Uddhav faction had demanded the Supreme Court to declare 16 MLAs including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ineligible for assembly membership. Calling itself the real Shiv Sena, the Shinde faction had made such a demand for the Shiv Sena MLAs of the Uddhav faction.

The Supreme Court has handed over the authority to decide on these petitions to the Speaker of the Assembly. Hearing on these petitions started in front of Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar on Monday. During the hearing, Uddhav faction's lawyer Devdutt Kamat demanded hearing of all the pending petitions together.

Whereas Shinde group's lawyer Anil Sakhre demanded to hear all the petitions separately. He said that the issues of all the petitions are different, hence they should be heard separately. The Speaker of the Assembly has indicated to take a decision in two-three days on whether the petitions will be heard together or separately. The next hearing of this case will be on October 13.

It is noteworthy that the Uddhav group wants an early decision on the petitions filed by it. He wants 16 MLAs of his group including Chief Minister Shinde to be declared ineligible for assembly membership. However, there is little hope that his wish will be fulfilled soon, because at the speed at which the hearing on the petitions is progressing, it is natural that it will take at least three months.

After this the Speaker of the Assembly will be busy in the winter session of the Legislature. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also asked the Assembly Speaker for details of the action taken so far on the decision process on this petition. The Assembly Speaker's office is also preparing for this.

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