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Uddhav camp moves SC over LS Speaker’s decision on floor leader
The plea is expected to be mentioned before Chief Justice of India NV Ramana during the week, posting it along with the bunch of other cases relating to the recent political developments in Maharashtra that are coming up on August 1.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenging Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision accepting Rahul Shewale as the floor leader of Shiv Sena in the lower house. Shewale belongs to Uddhav’s rival Eknath Shinde camp.
The plea is expected to be mentioned before Chief Justice of India NV Ramana during the week, posting it along with the bunch of other cases relating to the recent political developments in Maharashtra that are coming up on August 1.
On Monday, the Uddhav faction had filed an application for restraining the Election Commission of India (ECI) from deciding whether the Eknath Shinde camp represents the “real Shiv Sena” and should be allowed to use the bow and arrow as its election symbol.
At present, there is a court-ordered curb on disqualifying MLAs from both Maharashtra CM Shinde and Uddhav camps by the Maharashtra Speaker. But there is no judicial embargo on determination by the ECI as to which of the two factions is the real Shiv Sena, entitled to use bow and arrow as its symbol.
The top court is currently seized of a batch of six petitions filed by Shinde and Uddhav factions in relation to disqualification proceedings against the MLAs of both camps, election of Rahul Narwekar as new Speaker of the assembly, recognition of a new party whip for Shiv Sena, and the governor’s directive to Uddhav for proving majority on the floor of the house and subsequently inviting Shinde to form the new government in the state.
While the first two petitions in the Supreme Court were filed by the Shinde faction to stop the deputy speaker (there was no speaker at the time) from disqualifying them as MLAs, the Uddhav-camp also approached the apex court later, challenging the actions of the governor in directing Uddhav to prove the majority on the floor of the House as well as inviting Shinde to form the government in the state. The Uddhav camp further challenged Narwekar’s decision to recognise Shinde as the leader of Shiv Sena and appointment of a new chief whip of the party.
The interim order passed by the Supreme Court on June 27 put in abeyance the disqualification petitions pending against Shinde and 15 other MLAs till July 12. However, after Uddhav resigned on June 29 and the Shinde faction subsequently nominated its chief whip in the assembly, disqualification petitions were also filed against MLAs of the Uddhav-camp for not voting in favour of Shinde during the trust vote on July 4. These MLAs from the Uddhav camp also approached the top court, taking the tally of petitions to six.
On the last date of hearing, a three-judge bench had remarked that a larger bench may be required to settle the points of law surrounding the dramatic take-over of Shinde as the Maharashtra chief minister in the wake of certain crucial constitutional issues emerging in the matter.
“Some of the issues are important constitutional issues which should be settled...Some of the issues such as consequences of removal of Para 3 (of Tenth Schedule which did away with immunity from disqualification for a split in a party) and absence of split concept; whether a minority party leader has right to disqualify majority party leaders...these are some of the issues which will require a decision,” the bench had observed on July 20.
On that day, the court gave Uddhav and Shinde camps around a week to file their replies, written submissions and compilation of relevant judgments, fixing August 1 as the next date.
