BREAKING| Uddhav Group Moves Supreme Court Challenging Speaker's Approval For Whip Nominated By Eknath Shinde Group

The Uddhav Thackeray group of the Shiv Sena has approached the Supreme Court challenging the action of the newly elected Maharashtra Assembly Speaker recognizing the whip nominated by the Eknath Shinde group as the Chief Whip of Shiv Sena.

The writ petition challenging the Speaker's action has been filed by Sunil Prabhu, the whip appointed by Uddhav Thackeray-led group.

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the plea before a vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari for urgent listing.

Singhvi submitted that the Speaker has no jurisdiction to recognize the whip nominated by Shinde as Uddhav Thackeray is still the head of Shiv Sena official party. He submitted that last week, the Shinde group had challenged the continuance of Sunil Prabhu as the official whip of Shiv Sena, but the Court refused to pass any interim order in that regard.

"This Court refused to pass any orders..now Speaker has recognized the new whip...this is altering the status quo", Singhvi submitted.

The bench agreed to list the matter on July 11, the date on which the other two petitions filed in relation to Maharashtra Political crisis - the petition filed by Eknath Shinde and 15 dissident MLAs challenging the disqualification proceedings initiated by the Deputy Speaker and the petition filed by Sunil Prabhu challenging the Governor's direction for floor test- are listed.

Yesterday, the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elected BJP MLA Rahul Narvekar as the Speaker. The Speaker recognised the appointment of Bharat Gogawale from the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Sena, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belongs to the Thackeray faction.