Supreme Court to hear pleas of Uddhav & Shinde camps on July 20

Both the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde have moved the Supreme Court over disqualification of MLAs from the other camp.

The Supreme Court is likely to hear on July 20 a bunch of petitions on the Maharashtra political crisis that led to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. A three-judge bench, led by CJI NV Ramana, will hear the matter.

File photos of Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

Both the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde have moved the top court over disqualification of MLAs. Besides the CJI, Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli will comprise the bench that will hear the bunch of pleas filed by the two camps.

Last Monday, the Supreme Court had asked the Maharashtra Assembly speaker to not take any decision on disqualifying Shiv Sena MLAs. On July 3, Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was elected as the speaker of the Assembly after polling 164 votes and defeating Thackeray-led Sena candidate Rajan Salvi, who got 107 votes.

A day before the floor test, Narvekar had recognised Bharat Gogawale as the Shiv Sena's chief whip, removing Sunil Prabhu, who belonged to the Thackeray group.

After winning the trust vote on July 4, the Shinde faction had issued a notice to 14 legislators from the Thackeray camp for violating a whip issued by Gogawale.

Both sides have accused each other of defying the party whip during the Speaker's election and the trust vote on July 3 and 4, respectively, seeking disqualification of the legislators from both sides.

Later, the legislature secretary, Rajendra Bhagwat, issued show cause notices to 53 legislators over not following of whip. Forty of the notices were sent to the faction led by Shinde, while the other 13 are loyalists of Thackeray. Both the groups have sought the disqualification of legislators from the rival faction.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut demanded the imposition of President's rule in Maharashtra till the constitution bench of the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the plea seeking disqualification of the rebel MLAs.

"Article 164 (1-A) of the Constitution says that the number of ministers including CM of the state shall not be less than 12. For the last 2 weeks, the cabinet consisting of just 2 ministers is taking decisions that are not Constitutionally valid. Honourable governor sir, what's going on?" he wrote on Twitter.

Taking a dig at the newly formed Shinde government over the delay in the formation of the new cabinet, the Sena MP further said, "Barbados has a population of 2.5 lakh and yet has a cabinet of 27. Maharashtra's 12-crore population has a cabinet of 2 members that are taking arbitrary decisions. Where is the regard for the constitution?"

(With inputs from agencies)