The Supreme Court dismissed Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena's plea against the Maharashtra Speaker's decision
The petition challenges Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order on dismissal of disqualification petitions against the MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction.
Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena's plea: The hearing of a petition filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena was stayed by the Supreme Court on Monday. The petition challenges Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order on dismissal of disqualification petitions against the MLAs of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra could not hear the case today due to lack of time. Therefore, the bank indicated that it will likely list the matter for a hearing on Friday.
Last month, the Supreme Court issued notice to Eknath Shinde and 38 MLAs of his group on Sunil Prabhu's (Thackeray faction) plea challenging the Speaker's order.
The Shinde group had approached the Bombay High Court challenging the chairman's refusal to disqualify the Uddhav Thackeray group, and the High Court issued notice of the Shinde group's petition.
In the SC, the Thackeray faction, along with the Maharashtra Speaker's decision not to disqualify Shinde and his group, also challenged the Speaker's order to recognize the Shinde faction as the 'real Shiv Sena' after the split in June 2022.
The Speaker's decision came on January 10, almost two years after Thackeray's camp filed disqualification petitions against Shinde and his supporting lawmakers under the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Apostasy Act) of the Constitution.
The Thackeray faction approached the apex court challenging Maharashtra Speaker Narwekar's decision dismissing disqualification petitions against Shinde and 38 “rebel” Shiv Sena legislators, saying the decision was a “colorful” exercise of power based on “strange and irrelevant” considerations.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Speaker to expeditiously decide the disqualification petitions pending before him.
The disqualification petitions against the rebel MLAs were filed by Uddhav Thackeray-appointed Shiv Sena Party Whip Sunil Prabhu on June 23, 2022, after the MLAs revolted against Thackeray.
In May last year, a five-judge Constitution bench had ruled that it could not disqualify the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government from reinstating Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister as the latter had chosen to resign rather than face a test of strength in to undergo the Assembly.
In August 2022, the three-judge bench referred to a five-judge Constitution bench on the issues related to the petition filed by rival groups of Shiv Sena over the political crisis in Maharashtra.
On June 29, 2022, the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on June 30. It had refused to stay the Maharashtra Governor's order to then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove its majority support in the House. of the House of Representatives on June 30.
Following the apex court order, Uddhav Thackeray announced his resignation as Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde was later sworn in as Chief Minister.
On Saturday, February 10, it was reported that the plea filed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (UBT faction) in the Supreme Court over the 'real Shiv Sena' in the state will be taken up by the top court on Monday. , 12th of February.
The docket published on the SC's website states that a bench chaired by CJI DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will resume hearing on February 12.
Earlier, on January 22, the Supreme Court had notified a plea filed by Shiv Sena UBT leader Sunil Prabhu and called for response from CM Shinde and 38 other MLAs within a period of two weeks.
(With ANI inputs)