The Supreme Court on Friday said it will list and hear on March 7 the appeal filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena against Maharashtra State Speaker Rahul Narwekar for recognizing the Eknath Shinde faction as the 'real' Shiv Sena instead of disqualifying the rebels.
Senior lawyer and noted legal expert, Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray-led faction, today mentioned the appeal before the three-judge bench of the Apex Court, led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), and said that it was not in the list of business today.
Sibal pleaded with the Apex Court bench to list and hear the matter, to which, the bench replied it would list and hear it on March 7, Thursday.
The three-judge bench comprises Justices J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra besides the CJI.
The appeal was filed by the aggrieved Uddhav Thackeray-led faction before the Supreme Court, 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 ruling that the Eknath Shinde-led group is the real Shiv Sena. They need the Supreme Court's direction to reverse the State Assembly Speaker's January 10 order.
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".
The UT Group's petition claims that the state Assembly Speaker's orders are erroneous as they hold that the 2018 leadership structure cannot be relied upon as it purportedly does not confirm to the provisions of the Shivsena constitution.
"The orders of the State Assembly Speaker are without consideration of the main grounds of the disqualification pleas filed" by the 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 determining who is the political party. The order is a completely colorable 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 judgment 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 prima facie determining ‘which faction is the political party’ under the Tenth Schedule has, by a roving inquiry and perverse reasoning, held the leadership structure of the Shiv Sena cannot be relied upon for determining the 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 and “none of the grounds could be grounds 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.