Supreme Court Agrees To List Uddhav Sena's Petition Against Maharashtra Speaker's Refusal To Disqualify Shinde Group Members

LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK

5 Feb 2024 8:56 AM GMT

  • Supreme Court Agrees To List Uddhav Senas Petition Against Maharashtra Speakers Refusal To Disqualify Shinde Group Members

    The Supreme Court on Monday (February 5) agreed to list the petition filed by a member of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), challenging the refusal of the Maharashtra Speaker to disqualify the MLAs of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner Sunil Prabhu, mentioned the matter before Chief Justice...

    The Supreme Court on Monday (February 5) agreed to list the petition filed by a member of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), challenging the refusal of the Maharashtra Speaker to disqualify the MLAs of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.

    Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner Sunil Prabhu, mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that the petition has not been listed today, although it was supposed to come up today. While issuing notice on the petition on January 22, the Court had posted the matter to February 5(today).

    Following this, CJI Chandrachud agreed to list the matter.

    On January 22, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra issued notice returnable within two weeks.

    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”.

    It may be recalled that the Eknath Shinde group has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the refusal of the Speaker to disqualify the Uddhav Thackeray group. Three weeks ago, the High Court issued notice on the Shinde group's petition.

    Case : Sunil Prabhu v. Eknath Shinde SLP(C) No. 1644-1662/2024


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