The Supreme Court will on Wednesday continue to hear petitions filed in the wake of the Maharashtra political crisis which had led to the division of the Shiv Sena party into two factions – one led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other by former CM Uddhav Thackeray.
The top court on Tuesday said that members of a House are bound by a whip and any group of MLAs of a political party which is part of a ruling coalition saying they don’t want to be a part of an alliance will attract “disqualification”, reported Live Law.
A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, while hearing the petitions, said, “Once a government is formed, it is not open to any group of MLAs to say that we don’t want to go with this alliance. It is not open to any one segment of a political party to say we don’t want to go with this alliance. That will ipso facto attract the disqualification provisions. You are bound by the whip. You are bound to vote with your party so long as you are in the legislature, unless there is a merger.”
He further said, “So, on the one hand, none of them can say to the Governor that we don’t want to go with the alliance. The answer is very simple. You don’t want to go with an alliance? Then go to your leader and take a decision in the political party outside. So long as you are a member of the House, you are bound by discipline of the House. So you have to vote with your political party. What they’re saying to the Governor is that we don’t want the party to go with this alliance. And Governor takes cognisance of it. What he is essentially taking cognisance of is there is a breakaway segment of this particular party. In that letter to the Governor, one thing which is completely absent is your argument “we are the Shiv Sena”. The entire letter is postulated on the fact that you want to break away from this alliance. What is this if not a Split?”
To this, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, who is representing the Eknath Shinde faction said that the main question was whose political whip is the “actual whip”.
“There are two political whips appointed on the same day. We’re following the mandate of the party. The question is whether my political whip or their political whip is the actual whip. The faction, which has been now recognized officially, had the majority in the political party then. They can’t presume and say that we have incurred an ex facie disqualification. There is an overwhelming discontent in the cadre of the party. The party didn’t want to continue (with the alliance). The fact remains is that they were discontent.”
The bench also comprised Justices MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli, and Justice PS Narasimaha.