SC gives Maha speaker time till Jan 10

Supreme Court on Friday granted 10 more days to Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the cross-petitions filed by rival factions of Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other’s MLAs and extended the deadline to January 10. SC had in October directed the speaker to decide the disqualification application by December 31. The Supreme Court bench allowed the speaker’s plea for more time. “The speaker has indicated that the proceedings will be closed on December 20 and has sought a reasonable extension of time.