New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a five-judge bench the petitions filed by the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde raising several constitutional questions related to defection, merger and disqualification.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana ordered the listing of petitions before the constitution bench on Thursday and directed the Election Commission not to pass any orders on Shinde faction’s plea that it be considered the real Shiv Sena and granted the party’s poll symbol.
“List the matter before the constitution bench the day after tomorrow and the bench will decide about the symbol related to the Election Commission proceeding at the beginning,” the bench also comprising Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said.
The bench was hearing pending cases related to the recent political crisis in Maharashtra that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.
The court had also earlier noted that Maharashtra’s political crisis threw up several constitutional questions pertaining to anti-defection law, the election of Assembly Speaker, disqualification of legislators, floor test, among others.
“We will decide whether to refer the matter to the five-judges constitution bench,” the bench, also comprising justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, said.
According to Livelaw.in, the bench instructed EC to grant time to the Thackeray faction to file its response to the Shinde camp’s contentions, and no decision yet be taken given that the matter was still pending with the top court.
The faction led by Shinde, in its petition, argued that since it “commands numbers” the courts should not interfere in the internal party decisions “taken democratically by a majority”, according to NDTV. However, the Thackery camp urged the court to stop the EC from deciding on the rival camp’s pleas until its own petition seeking disqualification of “rebel” MLAs was heard.
The political turmoil in Maharashtra began with a rebellion in the Shiv Sena following which Thackeray resigned as chief minister on June 29. A day later, rebel Sena leader Shinde took the oath of office as chief minister with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as his partner.
(With PTI inputs)