New Delhi, March 01 (Hindustan Reporter) The Supreme Court will hear on March 7 the petition of Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena challenging the decision given by the Assembly Speaker on the disqualification case of MLAs in Maharashtra Assembly. Today, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, on behalf of the Uddhav faction, demanded an early hearing on this matter before the bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, after which the court assured to hear it on March 7.
On January 22, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the Eknath Shinde faction and the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly. The Uddhav Thackeray faction has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly to declare the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena. In the petition, the rejection of the petitions demanding disqualification of 38 MLAs of Shinde faction has also been challenged in the Supreme Court.
In fact, the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly had said in his decision on January 10 that in June 2022, the Shinde faction had the support of 37 out of 55 MLAs. In such a situation, Sunil Prabhu cannot be considered the Chief Whip of the party. In such a situation, Sunil Prabhu had no right to call a meeting of Shiv Sena Legislature Party. Even in the meeting called through WhatsApp, less than 12 hours was given. The Speaker had said that the appointment of Bharat Gogavale as Chief Whip and Eknath Shinde as Legislative Party Leader was right.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on January 9, objecting to the meeting between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Speaker Rahul Narvekar on January 7. It was said in the affidavit that it was wrong for the Speaker to meet the MLAs supporting the Chief Minister before giving the decision on their disqualification.