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Decide on argument points: Supreme Court to Shiv Sena factions
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked senior advocates appearing for the opposing Shiv Sena factions of Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to sit together and devise a common framework by proposing points of arguments.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked senior advocates appearing for the opposing Shiv Sena factions of Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to sit together and devise a common framework by proposing points of arguments and a common compilation of judgments by November 29 for arguments to proceed before a five-judge Constitution bench.
Directing senior advocate Kapil Sibal representing the Thackeray faction and senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul for the Shinde group to work together, a five-judge bench led by Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said, “It is agreed that counsel for contesting parties shall meet and formulate salient issues arising for consideration before the Constitution bench.”
The bench, also comprising justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha said, “After the above exercise is carried out in four weeks, the matter shall be listed for further directions on November 29.” The Court designated nodal junior lawyers from the two sides, Javedur Rehman and Chirag Shah to prepare a common compilation of judgments for circulation among the bench and the lawyers appearing for various parties.
The consensus on devising this process was arrived at by the bench after hearing senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also appearing for the Thackeray faction and senior advocates Maninder Singh and Mahesh Jethmalani for the Shinde faction.
The five-judge bench last met on September 28 when it allowed the Election Commission of India to decide the plea filed by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde staking claim over the Shiv Sena symbol. Early last month, the EC ordered freezing of the party symbol ahead of a crucial bye-poll and directed both factions to select an independent symbol.
This came as a blow to Uddhav camp as he had wanted to stop the EC from deciding on Shinde’s application pending the issue of disqualification of Shinde and 40 other MLAs who walked out of the party forcing Uddhav Thackeray to step down on June 29 as Chief Minister and leader of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government formed by Shiv Sena in alliance with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Shinde camp, with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came to power in the state.
The Constitution bench is yet to take up the questions of law raised by the two factions who have filed multiple petitions. On August 23, a three-judge bench referred the dispute to a Constitution bench noting a disputed question of law on whether the Speaker could initiate disqualification proceedings when his own removal was sought. The subsequent actions by the Eknath Shinde government to appoint the whip and Leader of the legislative party in the Assembly are also under challenge.
