Shiv Sena chief whip moves SC for suspending Shinde, other rebel MLAs

The Supreme Court will hear on July 11 Sena chief whip's plea

Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu on Friday approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to suspend from House, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 15 other MLAs till a final decision is taken on their disqualification.

The plea also asked the Court to restrain 'delinquent' MLAs from entering the Assembly.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Prabhu, mentioned the matter before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala.

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Sibal submitted that since there was no merger of the Shinde faction with the BJP, the moment he was sworn in as the Chief Minister, he violated the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution.

Sibal said, "He is not the party....It is not a dance of democracy."

"We have not shut our eyes...we will examine the matter," the bench said

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The Court agreed to take up the matter on July 11 along with the Shinde faction petitions challenging the disqualification proceedings against them.

Sibal contended that whose whip will count? Both will elect their own whips.

"Who is the real Shiv Sena can be decided by the Election Commission. If so, how votes would be counted during trust vote," Sibal said.

The bench said, "Let us see what is the procedure...if it is defective. We will examine."

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The plea claimed that the delinquent MLAs have acted as pawns of the BJP. The MLAs, who committed the constitutional sin of defection, ought not to be allowed to perpetuate their sin even for a single day by permitting them to continue as members of the Assembly, it contended.

"Though this court may have injuncted the Deputy Speaker from proceeding with the disqualification petitions since his jurisdiction has been questioned, that in no way means that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution would become a dead letter," the plea said.

"The unintended consequence of restraining the Deputy Speaker from proceeding with the disqualification petitions is that instead of curbing the evil of unprincipled political defection
clearly motivated by lure of office, the delinquent MLAs led by Shinde have been rewarded with the Chief Ministership while Devendra Fadnavis has been awarded with the post of Deputy Chief Minister," it added.

The plea asked the top court to pass an interim order suspending the delinquent MLAs, against whom disqualification petitions have been filed, from the membership of the 14th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, till the final adjudication of the Tenth Schedule proceedings initiated against them.