From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: In a long lease to Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde to continue in power, the Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a 5-judge Constitution Bench a score of petitions raising several Constitutional questions related to defections, merger and disqualification.
Though the top court ordered the listing of petitions from both sides of the Shiv Sena before the Constitution Bench on Thursday, the issues are such that the Bench will take long time to decide the issues related to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, pertaining to disqualification, power of the Speaker and the governor and the judicial review and as such Shinde gets long lease to remain in power until these issues are settled.
A Bench of Chief Justice of Indi N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli skipped the ruling on half a dozen petitions it was expected to pronounce by shifting the onus on a 5-judge Bench. It, however, directed the Election Commission not to pass any order till the next hearing on Thursday on Shinde faction’s plea to treat it as the real Shiv Sena and grant it the party’s poll symbol.
It said the proposition of law laid down by the constitution bench in the Nabam Rebia case relating to the Tenth Schedule stands on a contradictory reasoning which requires gap-filling to uphold constitutional morality.
“The matters raise important issues which need consideration by a five-judge constitution bench. List the matter before the constitution bench the day after tomorrow on Thursday and the bench will decide about the symbol related to the Election Commission proceeding at the beginning,” the bench said.
The top court asked the constitution bench to look into constitutional issues whether notice for removal of the Speaker restricts him from continuing with disqualification proceedings, whether a petition under Article 32 or 226 lies against disqualification proceedings, can a court hold that member is deemed to be disqualified by virtue of his/her actions, what is status of proceedings in the House pending disqualification petitions against the members.
The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution provides for the prevention of defection of the elected and nominated members from their political party and contains stringent provisions against defections.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, which ran the coalition government of Maha Vikas Aghadi with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, had earlier submitted that party MLAs loyal to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde can save themselves from disqualification under the Tenth Schedule only by merging with another political party.
The bench had asked the Shinde faction to redraft the legal issues of split, merger, defection and disqualification raised in petitions filed by the Thackeray camp that are to be adjudicated upon following the recent political crisis in Maharashtra.
The Shinde group had said the anti-defection law is not a weapon for a leader who had lost the confidence of his own party to lock his members and somehow hang on.
