NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to examine on January 22 a plea by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena against Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s decision treating the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as real Shiv Sena and dismissing disqualification petitions against them.
The Speaker's January 10, 2024 order has fortified political standing of Shinde and his supporting MLAs who had toppled the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra in June, 2022.
On Wednesday, a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the matter would be considered on Monday.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, mentioned the matter before the apex court.
In their plea, filed this week, Thackeray group said the Tenth Schedule is intended to disqualify legislators who act against their political party.
It said if majority of legislators are treated to be the political party, then the members of the actual political party become subject to the will of the majority of legislators, which is totally against the constitutional scheme, and is consequently liable to be set aside.
The Speaker's view is also in the teeth of the law laid down by the apex court in Subhash Desai’s case, it said.
It also claimed the Speaker’s decision is also contrary to this salutary principle of constitutional law, as they allow the evil of defection to be committed unabated, merely by winning over a majority of legislators belonging to the political party.
“In fact, rather than punishing the act of defection, the impugned judgments reward the defectors by holding that they comprise the political party," it said.
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