Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing Of Uddhav Sena's Plea Against Maharashtra Speaker's Refusal To Disqualify Shinde Group MLAs

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 12) deferred the petition filed by a Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) member challenging the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker's refusal to disqualify the MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde group.The bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud could not take up the matter today due to paucity of time. CJI agreed to list the matter at an earlier date for hearing. The bench also mentioned that the issue of maintainability will be considered first.When the bench was about to rise this evening, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter on behalf of the UBT group, requesting for an early hearing.He expressed, “ For hearing, because the other side is here my lords, it should not take another date ...the other side is here , they should file their response if they want so that the matter can be …” To which the respondents, represented by Senior Advocate Harish Salve contended that the present issue cannot be simultaneously heard in two different courts as the Shinde Faction has already approached the Bombay High Court at a previous instance, challenging the same order of the Maharashtra Speaker to extent he refused to disqualify Uddhav group MLAs. It was further raised that the respondents are coming against the maintainability of the present petition as well. Noting the same, CJI said that the listing would be done on an earlier day, and the bench would first hear the respondents on the issue of maintainability. “ Alright we will list it on an early date, we will hear them on maintainability first.” The Special Leave Petition under Article 136 has been filed by UBT member Sunil Prabhu challenging the order dated 10.01.2024 passed by the Speaker, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, dismissing the disqualification petitions filed by the Uddhav Thackeray group against each other.Speaker Rahul Narwekar dismissed the set of disqualification petitions filed by both the Shinde and Thackeray groups against each other. The Speaker held that the Shinde group was the 'real' Shiv Sena on the ground that they had a legislative majority (majority of MLAs) when the rival factions emerged in June 2022. The Speaker also recognized the whip appointed by Shinde as the official whip of the Shiv Sena party and held that there was no violation of the whip by the Shinde group MLAs. Uddhav Sena challenges that the Speaker's ruling violates the judgment of the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai v. Governor of Maharashtra, by conflating the concept of 'legislature party' with the 'political party”. Case : Sunil Prabhu v. Eknath Shinde SLP(C) No. 1644-1662/2024

Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing Of Uddhav Sena's Plea Against Maharashtra Speaker's Refusal To Disqualify Shinde Group MLAs

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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