'Assembly Elections Around The Corner': Uddhav Sena Seeks Early Hearing Of Plea In Supreme Court Against Shinde Sena

Mentioning Uddhav Sena's challenge to the Maharashtra assembly speaker's refusal to disqualify members belonging to the Eknath Shinde-led group, Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi urged the Supreme Court today to advance the hearing of the case, as Maharashtra Assembly elections are round the corner.

The matter was mentioned before a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, with a request that its hearing be advanced from July 19 to July 12. Hearing the same, the CJI told the counsels for petitioner to circulate an email request.

To recap, a special leave petition was filed by Sunil Prabhu [MLA belonging to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)] questioning the decision of Speaker Narwekar on the disqualification issue. On January 10, the Speaker had held that Eknath Shinde's faction was the 'real' Shiv Sena following the emergence of a rival faction within the party in June 2022. The Speaker had also refused to disqualify any member belonging to either faction.

The top court issued notice on Prabhu's latest petition in January this year. In February, while deferring the hearing, the bench indicated that the question of maintainability of the petition would be considered first. This came in response to Senior Advocate Harish Salve pointing out that the Eknath Shinde group had approached the Bombay High Court assailing part of the Speaker's order which refused to disqualify Uddhav Sena members, questioning the maintainability of the petition before the top court.

On March 7, the Supreme Court expressed reservations about the Speaker using the test of legislative majority to ascertain which faction was the real party. It pondered whether the approach of the Speaker contradicted the constitution bench judgment in Subhash Desai (2023).

Background

The legal dispute is over a January 10 decision of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, dismissing the disqualification petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde groups. The factions had filed 34 petitions seeking disqualification of 54 MLAs.

The UBT faction had submitted that the decision of pakshapramukh is synonymous with the will of the party, which is why if there is a rift in the leadership structure, the pakshapramukh's decision reflects the will of the party. Disagreeing, Speaker Narwekar said that Shinde's faction had an overwhelming majority of 37/55 MLAs when rival factions emerged and that he was validly appointed as leader of the party. The Speaker further stated that the will of 'party pakshapramukh' at the time, Uddhav Thackeray, could not be said to be the will of the party.

On this ground, the Speaker held Shinde group to be the 'real' Shiv Sena, pointing to its legislative majority in the state assembly following the emergency of rival factions. The Speaker also recognized the whip appointed by Shinde as the official whip of the Shiv Sena party and held that there was no violation of the whip by the MLAs belonging to the Shinde group.

However, Uddhav Sena challenged the Speaker's ruling, stating that it violated the judgment of the Supreme Court in Subhash Desai v. Governor of Maharashtra, by conflating the concept of 'legislature party' with the 'political party'. This was not the first time that the Uddhav Thackeray-led group approached the Supreme Court expressing discontent with Speaker Narwekar's conduct.

Last year, a constitution bench refused to restore the Uddhav Thackeray government citing the Shiv Sena leader's resignation without facing a floor test. It also refrained from adjudicating on the disqualification petitions, handing over the decision to the legislative assembly speaker, to be made within a 'reasonable period'.

Citing the long pendency of this decision, Sunil Prabhu filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in last year's July. Responding to it, the top court set a deadline of December 31, 2023 for the disposal of the disqualification pleas. Subsequently, at the speaker's request, an extension was granted, allowing him to complete the task by January 10.

Later, Prabhu filed an application questioning the speaker's impartiality in deciding the disqualification petitions against the Eknath Shinde-led faction members, alleging that Chief Minister Shinde had met Speaker Narwekar at the latter's official residence with three days remaining until the much-awaited verdict.

Case Details: Sunil Prabhu v. Eknath Shinde & Ors. | Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 1644-1662 of 2024