Sena (UBT)’s documents were all forged, claims Jethmalani

Counsel Mahesh Jethmalani argued in the Shiv Sena disqualification case that the organisational structure of the undivided Shiv Sena did not exist. Jethmalani also claimed that the documents related to the appointment of Ajay Chaudhari as legislative party leader were forged.

NAGPUR: On the second day of the hearing of oral arguments in the disqualification petitions served by the rival Shiv Sena factions on each other, counsel Mahesh Jethmalani argued that the organisational structure of the undivided Shiv Sena did not exist. Jethmalani, appearing for the Shinde-led Sena, said that the whip- and resolution-related documents passed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) on June 23 were forged and never served on Shinde’s faction.

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Jethmalani began his oral argument on Tuesday in the afternoon session. He said that the party MLAs were called for a meeting at Varsha on June 22 (a day after the split) but Uddhav Thackeray was not present. “It was just a notice and not a whip, and disobeying a notice cannot not be a reason for disqualification,” he said. Citing previous cases of defection in Goa and Uttar Pradesh in 2003, Jethmalani emphasised how the Shinde faction MLAs did not give up their membership voluntarily.

“The MLAs, who were in Assam, were served a notice at 10 am, asking them to attend the meeting at 5 pm on June 23,” he said. “MLAs like Deepak Kesarkar, who were in Mumbai but did not want to go, were threatened by party workers and not given proper protection to attend the meeting. This cannot be called disobedience of a party order.”

Jethmalani also argued that the documents submitted on the appointment of Ajay Chaudhari as legislative party leader in place of Eknath Shinde were fabricated. He claimed that Shinde had never been removed and thus Chaudhari’s appointment was illegal. “The documents related to the whip, attendance sheets and the resolution passed to remove Shinde as legislative party leader were forged and fabricated,” he said. “It amounts to a serious offence. They have claimed that they passed a resolution on June 22 to remove Shinde but at the same time, Milind Narwekar and Ravindra Fatak, who were sent to Guwahati, were negotiating with Shinde to come back. How is it possible? No such resolution was passed and the documents submitted to the apex court were forged.”

Jethmalani said that he would argue on the issue of which Shiv Sena was the original party on Wednesday. Speaker Narwekar replied that although Jethmalani had argued about the legislative party, the SC considered the political party to be supreme, and it had now become the law of the land. To this, Jethmalani retorted that the inference drawn by the apex court was on the basis of fake documents submitted by the Thackeray faction.

During the argument, speaker Narwekar at one point said, “Today, we consider the political party to be superior but wouldn’t it result in watering down the importance of floor tests? This is not my observation or opinion. But if the political party leader is authorised to grant support to the government by sending a resolution to the governor instead of a floor test to prove majority, it waters down the importance of the floor test.”

In the morning session, while concluding his arguments, Thackeray faction counsel Devadatt Kamat said that the rebel MLAs had travelled and conspired with the BJP to topple the MVA government led by the very political party on whose tickets they had been elected. “The sequence of events leaves no doubt about the active collusion of the Shinde faction MLAs with the BJP in Guwahati,” he said. “BJP leaders met Shinde during his stay in Guwahati.”

Kamat added that party whip Sunil Prabhu had issued a whip on July 3, directing all Shiv Sena MLAs to vote against the confidence motion moved by the Shinde faction on July 4. He also cited court observations in various cases, including the Kuldeep Nair case (2006) and the Shailesh Manubhai Parmar Case (2018) and said that the party whip prevailed over the personal wish or conscience of legislators. “There was also a whip issued on July 2 for the speaker’s election on July 3 and even if it had not been served, they were duty-bound to vote for their party candidate,” he said. “All 39 MLAs voted for the BJP candidate, and this was accepted by the Shinde faction.”

The speaker will close the case for his order after Jethmalani concludes his arguments on Wednesday.