The Supreme Court will hear an appeal filed by the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) party challenging the decision of the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to dismiss disqualification petitions against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp, while declaring them the “real” Shiv Sena. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Friday indicated that the appeal will be heard on March 7.
Appearing before a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Chandrachud, lawyers for both sides — senior advocate Kapil Sibal for the UBT, and senior advocate Harish Salve for the Eknath Shinde faction — sought an early hearing.
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Identical plea in HC
On an earlier occasion, Mr. Salve had informed the court about an identical petition filed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) camp in the Bombay High Court. He had questioned how the UBT could agitate an identical cause in two different courts at the same time.
On Friday, Mr. Salve reiterated that the question of maintainability of the petition in the Supreme Court should be decided first before going into the merits of the case.
Legislative majority
The Maharashtra Speaker’s decision came on January 10, nearly two years after Mr. Thackeray’s camp moved disqualification petitions against Mr. Shinde and his supporting legislators under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) of the Constitution in June 2022.
The Speaker said he had discerned that Mr. Shinde’s faction was the “real political party” from the legislative majority it had commanded at the time the rival factions emerged. “The Shinde faction was the real Shiv Sena political party when the rival factions emerged on June 21, 2022,” Speaker Rahul Narwekar had announced.
