The Supreme Court began hearing on Wednesday petitions filed by both factions of the Shiv Sena relating to the control of Shiv Sena party and the recent political crisis in Maharashtra, which brought down the Mahavikas Aghadi (Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP) government in the state.
An important hearing was held today in the Supreme Court on the power struggle that has been going on for almost a month in the state. During today's hearing, strong arguments were made on both sides. The Supreme Court will hold the next hearing in this case on August 1. Before that, the Supreme Court directed both sides to submit copies and documents by July 27. Apart from that, the Supreme Court has directed to preserve the documents related to this case.
During the argument, Eknath Shinde's lawyer Adv Harish Salve asked for time to submit some documents. Apart from that, he sought adjournment of the hearing for a week. However, Chief Justice Ramanna said that since some issues are very constitutional, an urgent hearing is necessary. The Chief Justice has asked both sides to file affidavits by Tuesday. During this hearing, the Chief Justice had remarked that it was necessary to take the matter before a larger bench. However, he did not take any decision regarding it. The decision in this regard is likely to be taken in the next hearing on August 1. The Chief Justice, while making an important remark, said that it is the party's right to change the group leader. Apart from that, the members can be elected by majority vote. If a dispute arises, the Assembly Speaker can intervene, he said.
Shiv Sena's lawyer Kapil Sibal, while opening the argument, said that the Constitution was violated. Accepting such a theory would bring down every elected government in the country. It is dangerous for democracy if the government continues to be formed in violation of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution. According to Article 4 of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, the split group has to be merged. 40 members of the Shiv Sena are disqualifying themselves under paragraph 2 of the Tenth Schedule for their conduct. He broke the whip by voting for the BJP candidate in the Assembly Speaker election. Therefore, Sibal raised the issue that they are disqualified.