The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it will hear on January 22, 2024, the plea of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) challenging the order of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, rejecting their petition seeking the disqualification Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 38 MLA backing him and recognising Shinde faction as real Shiv Sena.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud heading a bench also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra agreed to list the matter on January 22 upon a mentioning by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.
Sibal said the matter is listed for hearing on January 19 and requested if it could be heard on Monday – January 22 – to which the CJI agreed.
Sibal made the mentioning on behalf of Sunil Prabhu – Chief Whip of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) legislature party. Shiv Sena (UBT) has also challenged the Speaker Narwekar’s order to recognise the Eknath Shinde faction as the ‘real Shiv Sena’ after it split in June 2022.
Speaker Narwekar’s decision came on January 10 – the deadline set by the Supreme Court – nearly two years after Thackeray’s camp filed petition before the Speaker seeking the disqualification of Shinde and 38MLAs supporting him under the Tenth Schedule of the constitution relating to anti-defection law.
The Thackeray faction in its petition has said that the Speaker Narwekar’s decision was a “colourable” exercise of power based on “extraneous and irrelevant” considerations.
The disqualification petitions against the Shinde and 38 rebel MLAs were filed by Sunil Prabhu, the Shiv Sena legislature party’s Chief Whip appointed by Uddhav Thackeray, on June 23, 2022, after the MLAs backing Shinde revolted against him (Thackeray).
On May 11, 2023, a five-judge Constitution bench had said that it cannot unseat the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government and reinstate Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister because he (Thackeray) chose to resign instead of facing the floor test ordered by the Governor.
In August 2022, the top court’s three-judge bench had referred to a five-judge Constitution bench the issues involved in the petition filed by rival groups of Shiv Sena in relation to the Maharashtra political crisis.
On June 29, 2022, the top court gave a go ahead to the floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on June 30. It had refused to stay the Maharashtra Governor’s direction to the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to prove his majority support on the floor of the House on June 30.
After the June 29, 2022 order, Uddhav Thackeray announced his resignation as the Chief Minister and Eknath Shinde was later sworn-in as the Chief Minister.