Supreme Court Issues Notice To Lok Sabha Speaker On Shiv Sena UBT Challenge To Merger Of MPs With Shinde Sena

The Supreme Court today (July 22) issued notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker in a plea filed by Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) member Arvind Ganpat Sawant challenging the Lok Sabha Speaker's decision approving the merger of its six Members of Parliament with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. However, the Court refused to grant interim relief at this stage.

Before a bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, Senior Advocate Devadutt Kamat(for UBT) argued that no disqualification petitions are pending before the Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla; therefore, there was no occasion to pass an order approving the merger. He pressed for an interim relief for a stay on the Speaker's order. He also raised a contention that the merger order has been signed by some Joint Secretary and not by the LS Speaker. 

He said: "This raises important questions of constitutional morality and propriety, goes to the heart of parliamentary democracy. 6 MPs out of 9 chosen on my party symbol; no disqualification proceedings are pending. Question on merger has not arisen as what your lordships said in Subhash Desai...whole thing orchestrated only for the purposes of parliament session, my lords may take it next week."

Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Eknath Shinde, opposed the UBT's plea. Issuing notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker, the bench refused to grant any interim relief while listing the matter after two weeks.

Reportedly, ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla approved the merger of six Shiv Sena UBT MPs into the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

The MPs are Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East), Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar (Hingoli), Omprakash Rajenimbalkar (Dharashiv) and Bhausaheb Wakchaure (Shirdi). With the merger, the strength of UBT's MPs in Lok Sabha has decreased to three, whereas Shinde Sena's has increased to 13 MPs.

Case Details: ARVIND GANPAT SAWANT v HONBLE SPEAKER, LOK SABHA AND ORS.|W.P.(C) No. 886/2026