New Delhi: The Shiv Sena has approached the Supreme Court asking that the newly ordained Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and 15 other MLAs against whom disqualification petitions have been filed be suspended from the state assembly while the petitions are decided on. The court has agreed to hear the matter on July 11.
The vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J.B. Pardiwala said on Friday (July 1) morning that this petition, filed by Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu, will be heard alongside the main petitions on the recent developments in Maharashtra, LiveLaw reported. Prabhu’s advocate Kapil Sibal had asked for an urgent hearing of the matter on Friday.
“The delinquent MLAs who have been acting as pawns of the BJP, thereby committing the constitutional sin of defection, ought not to be allowed to perpetuate their sin even for a single day by permitting them to continue as members of the assembly,” NDTV quoted the petition as saying.
On Monday, soon after Shinde and the other MLAs had made their motives clear, the Shiv Sena led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked the deputy speaker to disqualify the 16 MLAs. The rebel MLAs had then approached the Supreme Court, saying any move to disqualify them would be illegal.
“After June 29 order, Eknath Shinde was sworn in as Chief Minister. There is no merger. How are you going to control the house? Whose whip is to be followed? The moment he is sworn in, he has incurred disqualification under para 2. He is not the party,” Sibal submitted before the court on Friday.
While Shinde has come to power with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support, the 16 rebel MLAs claim to still represent the Shiv Sena. Thackeray and his supporters have denied this in their petition. “Despite the rebellion carried out by the Eknath Shinde faction, the original Shiv Sena political party remains under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray…who was elected president of the Shiv Sena way back on 23.01.2018 when the organisational elections of the were conducted and the same was communicated to the Election Commission on 27.02.2018,” the petition states.