The Supreme Court on January 22 agreed to examine a petition filed by Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) leader Sunil Prabhu against the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s decision to dismiss disqualification petitions against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and supporting MLAs, while holding the Shinde faction the “real” Shiv Sena.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued notice to Mr. Shinde and listed the case after two weeks.
The court was initially reluctant to take up the case and Chief Justice Chandrachud asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mr. Prabhu, why they should not approach the Bombay High Court first.
“The Speaker heard and decided the disqualification proceedings based on the judgment by the Supreme Court... Your Lordships have been hearing the issue and knows the case closely. The Shinde group has approached the High Court to further delay the case ahead of the elections...” Mr. Sibal submitted.
Plea under anti-defection law
The Speaker’s decision came on January 10, nearly two years after Mr. Thackeray’s camp moved disqualification petitions against Mr. Shinde and his supporting legislators under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution in June 2022.
The Speaker discerned that the Mr. Shinde faction was the “real political party” from the legislative majority it had commanded at the time the rival factions emerged.
“‘Shinde faction’ was the ‘real Shiv Sena political party’ when the rival factions emerged on June 21, 2022,” Speaker Rahul Narwekar had announced.
The Speaker had also held that since ‘Shinde faction’ was the real political party, the UBT faction’s allegations that the Shinde faction violated the whip cannot be sustained.
The Speaker dismissed the UBT’s claims that the Shinde faction had become “incommunicado” with the SSLP (Shiv Sena Legislative Party) leadership after the ‘split’ as a “mere allegation”.
The UBT faction had filed disqualification petitions against the Shinde camp, alleging that the latter had “deliberately” remained absent from the urgent meetings called by the party leadership in June 2022. The disqualification petitions argued that the Shinde faction had illegally passed a resolution in June 2022 re-appointing Mr. Eknath Shinde as the SSLP leader and Bharat Gogawale as the Chief Whip.
The Thackeray faction had contended that the Shinde camp had voted contrary to the whip issued by Mr. Prabhu in the election for the Speaker and the trust vote.
A five-judge Constitution Bench, on May 11 last year, directed the Maharashtra Speaker, in his capacity as tribunal under the Tenth Schedule, to hear and decide the disqualification petitions within a “reasonable time”.
