The Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly, Rahul Narwekar, was required to decide whether the breakaway group of Shiv Sena Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) under the leadership of Eknath Shinde voluntarily gave up the membership of their party and later voted against the whip issued by that party, the Shiv Sena, and thereby incurred disqualification. Voluntarily giving up the membership of their original party or voting against the whip of the party are treated as defection and the Members of the legislature who do either of these things are liable to be disqualified under the anti-defection law contained in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. It was immaterial that Eknath Shinde later became the Chief Minister or that a majority of the Shiv Sena’s legislators joined the Shinde group or that the original Shiv Sena party became a minority in the Assembly. These facts are irrelevant for the determination of the question of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule.
An attempt to prevent disqualification
The petition was filed by the original Shiv Sena party which sought the disqualification of the Shinde group. When such a petition is filed before the Speaker, he gets the jurisdiction to decide whether the respondent legislators have defected. The facts placed before the Speaker were that the rebel MLAs under the leadership of Eknath Shinde had secret meetings in a faraway State and did not attend the crucial legislative party meetings called by the president of the original Shiv Sena party, Uddhav Thackeray, without giving any reason. This rebellion by the group of MLAs loyal to Eknath Shinde culminated in the formation of an alliance with the party in Opposition and Mr. Shinde being sworn in as Chief Minister. So, Speaker Narwekar was called upon to decide whether this action of Eknath Shinde and his colleagues could be treated as voluntarily giving up the membership of the party, the Shiv Sena, and, hence, could be disqualified.
