Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list a petition by Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena challenging the order of Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on the dismissal of disqualification pleas against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction MLAs. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Thackeray group mentions the matter for early listing of the case saying it can be listed else elections are to be held.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, that the plea, which was to be listed on Monday, has not come up. “We will see it,” the CJI said.
The top court on January 22 had issued notices to Chief Minister Shinde and other lawmakers of his group on the plea of the Thackeray faction challenging the speaker’s order. The court had then ordered a listing of plea after two weeks. The Thackeray faction has alleged that Shinde "unconstitutionally usurped power" and is heading an "unconstitutional government".
In his order passed on January 10, Speaker Narwekar had also rejected the Thackeray faction's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde. Challenging the orders passed by the Speaker, the Thackeray faction has claimed they are "patently unlawful and perverse" and that instead of punishing the act of defection, they reward the defectors by holding they comprise the political party.
(With inputs from PTI)
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