Mumbai/IBNS/UNI: Acting on the direction of the Supreme Court, Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rahul Narvekar Monday heard arguments over the clubbing of disqualification petitions against Shiv Sena MLAs from both Udhhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions and reserved his decision.

The next hearing is scheduled for October 13, and the detailed schedule of the same is expected to be sent to the counsels from both sides by the Assembly secretariat in a couple of days.

As the hearing on the disqualification petitions began at the central hall of the Maharashtra legislature at around 3:30 p.m., differences between the two sides over clubbing the petitions came to the fore.

Advocate Devdatta Kamat argued on behalf of the Shiv Sena (UBT) while Advocate Atul Sakhare appeared for the fiction of Eknath Shinde chief minister of the state group.

Speaking to reporters on the Vidhan Bhavan premises, Sakhare said, "Speaker Narwekar heard our arguments as we are opposed to clubbing all the petitions filed before him. Our demand is to conduct independent hearings of those petitions.”

"The Speaker may announce the schedule of the hearings in the next couple of days. The first hearing will commence on October 13. Official arguments will be made regarding the hearing of all the petitions together or separately," Sakhare said.

He said there was no official hearing during the day and only the procedural part was decided.
Disqualification petitions have been filed against 39 MLAs, he said.