The Supreme Court on March 7 asked whether Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar “contradicted” a Constitution Bench judgment to bank on ‘legislative majority’ as a criterion to declare Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction as the “real” Shiv Sena.
“The Speaker says the ‘real’ political party is discernible from which faction held the legislative majority at the time of the emergence of the rival factions… Is this not contrary to what we had laid down on May 11?” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, asked.
Deciding the disqualification petitions filed against Mr. Shinde by rival Uddhav Thackeray under the anti-defection law on January 10, Mr. Narwekar had declared the Chief Minister’s camp as the true party based on a finding that he had commanded the legislative majority at the time Shiv Sena splintered in June 2022.
