From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Fixing hearing on November 29 on which is the real Shiv Sena since after its split into two, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud, on Tuesday granted four weeks to the two factions led by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and previous chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to file their compilation of arguments, index, case law references, etc.
Other judges on the Constitution Bench are Justices M R Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha.
“Idea is to facilitate us when we have to write a judgement. Written submissions help us a great deal”, Justice Chandrachud remarked. The court has appointed advocates U R Rehman and Chirag Shah to as nodal counsel for facilitating the process.
The Court said after the submissions are filed, it would list the case for directions and after that for the final hearing.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Devadatt Kamat and A M Singhvi appeared for the Thackeray group whereas senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for the Eknath Shinde group.
In June, Eknath Shinde had moved the Supreme Court asking for a direction to the deputy speaker to not take any action in the petition moved by Shiv Sena seeking the disqualification of Shinde and other MLAs.
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Pardiwala had extended the time granted by the deputy speaker to Eknath Shinde and other MLAs to file their response in their disqualification petition.
Sunil Prabhu, the erstwhile chief whip of the Shiv Sena and a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly had moved the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution, challenging the governor’s communication to hold a floor test on June 30, 2022. The Supreme Court, however, refused to stay the floor test.
After the hearing in the SC on June 29, 2022, Bharat Gogawale, the Shiv Sena MLA from Mahad, filed an application seeking to suspend Eknath Shinde and other “delinquent MLAs” from the membership of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, as an interim measure, till their disqualification petitions are finally decided. The vacation bench, however, refused the urgent listing of the plea.
Shinde took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra on June 30, 2022. Subsequently, on July 3, a floor test was conducted and he emerged successful. His camp moved a plea for the disqualification of Shiv Sena MLAs, who did not vote for Shinde in the floor test.
On July 11, 2022, Supreme Court orally asked the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker to not decide matters pertaining to the disqualification of the MLAs till the petitions filed by the delinquent legislators of Shiv Sena challenging the disqualification proceedings are pending before the apex court. The Uddhav camp has also challenged the decision of the governor to appoint Shinde as the chief minister.
