The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred a batch of petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions against each other over the formation of the Maharashtra government and the control of the party to a five-judge Constitution bench. The larger bench will begin hearing the petitions of both factions of the Shiv Sena on Thursday.
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The top court also restrained the Election Commission from acting on Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s plea to recognise his faction as the legitimate Shiv Sena, and the subsequent allotment of the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the Shinde faction until Thursday’s hearing.
Earlier, a 3-judge SC bench presiding over the matter expressed apprehensions over a previous judgement passed by the apex court in the 2016 Nabam Rebia case wherein the court had ruled that a Speaker cannot initiate disqualification proceedings when a plea for his removal is in place.
The constitutional bench has ordered the listing of all cross-petitions filed by both the camps for Thursday. Firstly, the Shinde faction had moved the top court challenging the disqualification notices issued against legislators from the Shinde camp by the then Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, when the resolution to remove Zirwal was still pending. Bharat Gogawale and 14 MLAs from the ‘rebel’ camp had moved the resolution. On July 27, the division bench of SC had allowed time to the rebel MLAs to submit their written responses to Zirwal’s disqualification notice till July 12.
Secondly, a petition was filed by the party chief whip Sunil Prabhu, belonging to the Thackeray camp, against the Maharashtra Governor’s direction to the then Uddhav Thackeray government to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly House after summoning a special session.
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Thirdly, General Secretary of the Shiv Sena Subhash Desai had challenged the decision of the Maharashtra Governor’s invitation to Shinde to form the government in the state. In his petition, he has called the special Assembly sessions, held on July 3 and July 4, to elect the new Speaker and to prove Shinde government’s majority on the floor as ‘illegal.’
Lastly, 14 legislators from the Thackeray faction has moved SC over their disqualification by the Speaker under the provisions of the 10th Schedule.
