Sena VS Sena tussle: SC to hear on Jan 22 Uddhav Thackeray faction’s plea against Maha Speaker’s decision
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on January 22, the appeal filed by aggrieved Uddhav Thackeray-led camp, challenging the Maharashtra State Assembly Speaker's order, refusing to disqualify Eknath Shinde and 15 other MLAs.
The faction also challenged the Speaker's order of ruling that Eknath Shinde-led group is the real Shiv Sena. They need the Supreme Court's directions for a reversal of the State Assembly Speaker's January 10 order.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the Uddhav Thackeray-led camp, mentioned the matter before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, and comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra. Sibal informed the court that the hearing, initially scheduled for January 19, was requested to be postponed to January 22, Monday, a request to which the bench agreed.
Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday had moved the Supreme Court challenging Maharashtra State Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar's order, dismissing the disqualification petitions against Eknath Shinde and 38 MLAs ruling that the Shind faction of Shiv Sena is the real Shiv Sena.
"The appeal has been filed before the Top court by Uddhav Thackeray group challenging the Maharashtra State Assembly Speaker's orders," the plea filed before the Top Court by, Uddhav Thackeray-led group said, in the petition.
Maharashtra State Assembly Speaker, Rahul Narwekar on January 10 had in his order declared that the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was “the real political party” and "real Shiv Sena".
Besides challenging the recognizing Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena, UT group has also challenged before the Top court the dismissal of the disqualification pleas against Shinde faction MLAs who rebelled & split party in June 2022 and bringing Sena (UT) MLAs under Shinde faction's control.
The UT Group's petition copy, revealed that the state Assembly Speaker's orders are erroneous, as it holds that the 2018 leadership structure cannot be relied upon as it purportedly does not confirm with the provisions of the Shivsena constitution.
"The orders of the State Assembly Speaker, is, without the consideration of the main grounds of the disqualification pleas, which have been filed by them (UT group)," the plea stated.
"The Speaker's order is ex-facie ultra vires the provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution in as much as it appreciates the legislative majority of the ‘Shinde faction’ for the purpose of determining who is the political party. The order is a complete colourable exercise of power and is based on extraneous and irrelevant considerations. The Speaker has relied upon ‘legislative majority’ to determine who is the real political party," the petition of UT faction, said.
The Speaker must not base their decision as to which group constitutes the political party on a blind appreciation of which group possesses a majority in the Legislative Assembly. This is not a game of numbers, but of something more, it said.
The Speaker’s order is also in flagrant violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai, which has categorically laid down the fundamental difference between ‘legislature party’ and ‘political party’, the plea said.
"The Speaker's orders in prima facie determining ‘which faction is the political party’ under the Tenth Schedule has by a roving enquiry and perverse reasoning has held the leadership structure of the Shiv Sena cannot be relied upon for the purpose of determining Shiv Sena Political Party," the plea said.
The Speaker's order is completely perverse in its appreciation on merits as it has not even considered the admitted factual position regarding disqualification under relevant statute. These are simply brushed away by stating that since ‘Shinde faction’ has been held to be the political party “none of the grounds could be a ground to seek disqualification”, it said.
The Speaker has perversely failed to consider the clear evidence demonstrating the service of whips on the MLAs through unimpeached emails, the plea said.