Shinde Faction’s Pleas Heard: Bombay High Court Sends Notice to Maharashtra Speaker in MLA Disqualification Case

Background

The Shiv Sena party split into two factions in June 2022, when Eknath Shinde, a cabinet minister in the Maharashtra Government, rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray, leading to the fall of the Maha Vikas Agadhi Government. Disqualification pleas were filed against Shinde and other MLAs, resulting in legal battles and petitions in the Supreme Court. A total of 34 petitions were filed in 2022, seeking the disqualification of total 54 MLAs from both sides.

Speaker’s decision

On January 10, 2024, Speaker Rahul Narwekar declared that the Eknath Shinde-led faction was the real Shiv Sena when the party split on June 22, 2022. However, he dismissed petitions filed by both factions seeking disqualification of MLAs of the other faction. Narwekar declared Bharat Gogavle of the Shinde faction as the valid whip but refused to disqualify members of Uddhav Thackeray faction for violating the whip, stating that Shinde’s faction failed to prove that the whip for the confidence vote was served on UBT faction MLAs.

High Court’s notice

On January 17, 2024, the Bombay High Court issued notice to all the respondents in petitions filed by CM Eknath Shinde-led faction’s pleas challenging Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker’s refusal to disqualify 14 MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray faction. The respondents include the 14 MLAs, speaker Rahul Narwekar and the Maharashtra Legislature Secretariat. The matter will now be heard next on February 8, 2024. The Shinde faction has contended that the Uddav Thackeray faction members not only violated the whip but also voluntarily gave up the membership of the Shiv Sena Political Party by their acts and omissions. They also claimed that the Thackeray MLAs voted against the Shiv Sena government in cahoots with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) thereby seeking to topple the ruling government during the trust vote which took place on July 4, 2023 in the legislative assembly.

Supreme Court’s intervention

Meanwhile, the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Speaker’s decision insofar as it recognized Eknath Shinde group as the real Shiv Sena and refused to disqualify the members of Shinde faction for defection as per the tenth schedule of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has issued notice to Maharashtra speaker on plea to adjudicate disqualification petitions against CM Shinde and others.