The Supreme Court ordered Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar to dispose of the pending petitions on the disqualification motion on or before December 31. Also, it has been said that the next hearing in this case will be held in the first week of January.

In the said petition, a demand has been made to disqualify the MLAs of Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar faction of NCP. On behalf of the Speaker, the Supreme Court had said that it would dispose of the petitions related to disqualification by February 29, 2024. It is known that in the last hearing, the apex court had expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of disposal of the case.

During the hearing, the Solicitor General, appearing for the Speaker, said, "There will be a delay due to the Assembly session, Diwali and Christmas holidays. Still, he will try to reach a settlement by January 31." It must be completed, it cannot be postponed for a long time."

A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said procedural complications should not be allowed to delay disqualification petitions. "We are concerned that the sanctity of the Tenth Schedule should be maintained," it said. It is known that the Tenth Schedule has been made to prevent political defection.

The bench also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra. "The petitions should not be delayed due to procedural complications. We direct that the proceedings will be concluded by December 31, 2023 and directions will be passed," the bench said.

The apex court had earlier come down hard on the Speaker over the delay in taking a decision on the petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction for disqualification of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and several MLAs loyal to him and had said that the Speaker cannot negate the orders of the apex court. Similar disqualification petitions have been filed by the Shinde faction against MPs owing allegiance to Thackeray. On September 18, the apex court had directed the Speaker to give a deadline for decision on the petitions.