Maharashtra Deputy Speaker: Only Assembly can remove me not a mere notice of no confidence

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal said one cannot remove him from the post just by serving a notice of no confidence, amid the ongoing tussle between the two Shiv Sena factions in the Supreme Court.

He wondered how he could preside over the election of the Speaker (BJP’s Rahul Narvekar) if the notice was sufficient to unseat him.

“A mere notice is not enough to remove me from the chair. I was elected unanimously in the Assembly and hence my removal can be done by the Assembly itself. If I cannot preside over the Assembly because of a notice of no confidence, how is it that I was on the chair for electing the Speaker,” Zirwal, who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party, told reporters in Nashik.

He was responding to questions on the proceedings in the Supreme Court where a batch of petitions has raised many issues, including the powers of the speaker, following the split in the Shiv Sena last year.

As per Sena MLAs from the Eknath Shinde camp, the rival faction under Uddhav Thackeray had sought their disqualification even when their notice for the removal of Deputy Speaker Zirwal was pending before the House. The Supreme Court on Friday declined to refer pleas related to the June 2022 Maharashtra political crisis triggered by the Sena’s division to a seven-judge bench for reconsideration of the 2016 Nabam Rebia judgement.

In 2016, a five-judge Constitution bench, while deciding the Nabam Rebia case of Arunachal Pradesh, had held that the assembly speaker cannot proceed with a plea for disqualification of MLAs if a prior notice seeking the speaker’s removal is pending before the House.

Source: Press TRust of India