Sena Vs Sena: Supreme Court to consider Thackeray group's plea against Shinde, MLAs on August 7

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on August 7 a plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order declaring the Shiv Sena bloc led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the "real political party" after its split in June 2022.

The speaker had also dismissed the disqualification petitions of the Thackeray faction against CM Shinde and his supporting MLAs.

The observation related to the hearing of the Thackeray faction’s plea came from a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the party, flagged the issue of tagging of the plea with another pertaining to the NCP row.

"The Shiv Sena matter is listed for hearing on August 6 and it is unnecessarily tagged with the NCP (case on Monday)," Sibal said.

The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, clarified that on Monday, it had said the NCP and the Shiv Sena matter will be heard together one after the another and they were not tagged.

"We will hear it on August 7," the CJI told Sibal.

On Monday, the same bench had sought the responses of Ajit Pawar and his 40 MLAs on a separate plea moved by the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP challenging Narwekar's decision declaring the group led by the deputy chief minister as the real NCP.

It had taken note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who appeared for the Sharad Pawar faction, that the plea needed an urgent hearing keeping in mind the short remnant tenure of the state Assembly. The term of the Maharashtra Assembly expires in November.

The bench, on Monday, had said it will hear the plea filed by Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad, lawmakers from the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, just after it concluded hearing a similar petition of the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray camp of the Shiv Sena.

The Thackeray group has filed a similar petition contesting the speaker's decision in favour of Shinde and his MLAs that they represent the real Shiv Sena.

Sibal on Tuesday came to the court opposing the alleged tagging of both the pleas, saying that they are separate.

On January 22, the top court had issued notices to the chief minister and other lawmakers of his group on the plea of Prabhu, a leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction.

The Thackeray faction has alleged that Shinde "unconstitutionally usurped power" and is heading an "unconstitutional government".

In his order passed on January 10, Speaker Narwekar had also rejected the Thackeray faction's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde.

Challenging the orders passed by the Speaker, the Thackeray faction has claimed they are "patently unlawful and perverse" and that instead of punishing the act of defection, they reward the defectors by holding that they comprise the real political party.

"All impugned decisions are premised on a common finding that the majority of legislators represented the will of the political party, and therefore, they are not liable for disqualification," the plea said.

In his ruling on the disqualification petitions, the speaker did not disqualify any MLA belonging to the rival camps.

The speaker's ruling further cemented Shinde's position as the chief minister, 18 months after he led a rebellion against Thackeray, and added to his political heft in the ruling coalition, which also consists of the BJP and the NCP (Ajit Pawar group).

Narwekar had said no party leadership can use provisions of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) to quell dissent or indiscipline within a party.

The Shinde group had the support of 37 out of the total 54 Sena MLAs when the party split in June 2022, the speaker had noted.

The Election Commission had given the 'Shiv Sena' name and 'bow and arrow' symbol to the Shinde-led faction in early 2023.

In his order on the disqualification petitions filed by the Shinde-led Sena and the rival Thackeray faction against each other's MLAs, Narwekar had said Sunil Prabhu of the Sena (UBT) ceased to be the whip from June 21, 2022 (when the party split) and legislator Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde group became the authorised whip.

The speaker had also held that the Shiv Sena 'pramukh' (chief) did not have the power to remove any leader from the party. He did not accept the argument that the will of the party chief and the will of the party were synonymous.