Shinde vs Thackeray: No action against Sena MLAs for now, pleas to be taken up by larger bench, rules Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday directed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar to refrain from undertaking any further proceedings on the plea to disqualify legislators from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena group till the court passes orders on the same. Hearing the Uddhav faction’s counsel Kapil Sibal in the matter, Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli issued the order to the newly-elected Maharashtra Assembly speaker.

Last week, disqualification notices were issued to 16 MLAs from the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena for defying the Chief Whip of the Shinde faction during the trust vote. Uddhav’s son Aaditya was not included in the disqualification list “out of respect for Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb.”

“The court had said that the petitions would be listed on July 11. I urge that there should be no disqualification till the matter is decided here,” Sibal said, while pointing out that the same protection was given to the rebel MLAs when they had approached the top court earlier.

“Mr (Tushar) Mehta (Solicitor General who was appearing for the Governor), you please inform the assembly speaker not to take any hearing. Let us see, we will hear the matter,” the bench said.

The apex court, not listing the matter for today, said that a Constitution or a larger bench will sit on this matter at a future date.

Several important petitions that can decide the fate of the newly-formed Eknath Shinde government, from both the Shinde and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena groups are pending before the Supreme Court. The June 30 invitation by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and BJP to form the government has been challenged by the Thackeray-led Sena before the top court today. The Shinde camp has also challenged Thackeray faction’s appointments of Sunil Prabhu as the chief whip and Ajay Chaudhary as the legislature party’s head in the Vidhan Sabha.

The Shinde faction has challenged Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal’s decision to disqualify 16 rebel legislators for allegedly violating the chief whip from the Thackeray faction. The Shinde camp has argued that since a no-confidence motion was already in place for Zirwal, he was in no position to issue disqualification notices to the rebel MLAs.

Meanwhile, the Thackeray camp has knocked on SC’s doors against the newly-elected Speaker Rahul Narvekar’s decision to recognise Shinde, in place of Chaudhary, as the party’s legislature leader and Bharat Gogawale as the chief whip. Uddhav faction’s whip Sunil Prabhu has also filed a plea before the SC seeking the suspension of the rebel legislators until the disqualification proceedings are pending against them.

(With inputs from PTI)