Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and 38 other Shiv Sena legislators of his camp on a petition filed by the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) group, challenging the Maharashtra assembly speaker’s decision to dismiss the disqualification petitions against Shinde and the MLAs that supported him during the rebellion in 2022 and holding the CM’s faction to be the “real Shiv Sena”.
A bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, issued notices to all the 39 MLAs against whom the disqualification petitions had been filed by the Thackeray camp under the anti-defection law for defying the party whip in the House for the election of the speaker and the floor test in 2022.
The bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, will take up the matter again after two weeks.
The Shiv Sena suffered a vertical split in June 2022 when Eknath Shinde and 38 other legislators joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government. The rebellion brought down the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
During the brief hearing on Monday, the court asked senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the UBT group, why they did not approach the high court in the first instance.
Responding, the senior lawyers pointed out that the term of the present assembly would perhaps be over by the time the high court decides their plea. The polls in the state are expected in October 2024.
“We are arguing on the breach of the judgment of this court…asking for an interpretation of the judgment of this court. Which other court can be in a better position to decide? Our request is that this court should only hear and decide,” Sibal submitted.
Agreeing, the bench issued notice on the petition filed by Thackeray faction’s chip whip and legislator Sunil Prabhu and fixed the hearing after two weeks.
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