Sena vs Sena: Will list plea of Thackeray faction against Speaker’s order, says Supreme Court

New Delhi, February 12

The Supreme Court said on Monday it will list the plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s order declaring the Shiv Sena bloc led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the “real political party” after the outfit’s split in June 2022.

The plea of the Thackeray faction was listed for hearing on Monday but the matter could not be taken up during the day due to paucity of time.

“Let them (Shinde faction) file a response. The notice was issued earlier,” senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, told the bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

“We will list it,” the CJI said.

In the meantime, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Shinde group, said since a petition on the issue was also pending in the Bombay High Court, proceedings cannot go on in two courts simultaneously.

Earlier, on February 5, the CJI-led bench had agreed to consider listing the Thackeray faction’s plea.

The top court had on January 22 issued notices to Chief Minister Shinde and other lawmakers of his group on the Thackeray bloc’s plea challenging the Speaker’s order.

The court had then ordered its listing after two weeks.

The Thackeray faction has alleged that Shinde “unconstitutionally usurped power” and is heading an “unconstitutional government” in Maharashtra.

In his order passed on January 10, Speaker Narwekar had also rejected the Thackeray faction’s plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde.

Challenging the orders passed by the speaker, the Thackeray faction has claimed they are “patently unlawful and perverse” and that instead of punishing the act of defection, they reward the defectors by holding that they comprise the real political party.