Shinde Sena appointing whip was 'illegal', refers to larger bench

The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on 11 May said that the Speaker's decision to appoint Gogawale (Shinde group) as chief Whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal. While pronouncing the judgement, SC refers 2016 Nabam Rebia five-judge verdict related to power of speaker on disqualification of MLAs to larger bench.

SC said Speaker's decision to appoint Gogawale (Shinde group) as chief Whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal. Supreme Court says that the Speaker should recognize only the whip appointed by the political party.

The five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and PS Narasimha was dealing with the issue related to Maharashtra political crisis.

The case pertains on a batch of pleas including one seeking disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs (of Shinde's party) who revolted against the Thackeray leadership.

Earlier on Wednesday, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar said the current state government has the majority no matter what decision comes out, in comments coming ahead of the Supreme Court's verdict expected soon on a plea seeking the disqualification of 16 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Ahead of the Supreme Court verdict on the Maharashtra political crisis tomorrow, Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that the judgement will decide whether "Democracy is alive or not" in the country.

The hearing of the case which went on for almost 9 days saw senior lawyers making arguments. Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi were appearing for the Uddhav camp and Harish Salve, NK Kaul, and Mahesh Jethmalani for the Shinde camp.

The hearing of the case which went on for almost 9 days saw senior lawyers making arguments. Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi were appearing for the Uddhav camp and Harish Salve, NK Kaul, and Mahesh Jethmalani for the Shinde camp.

Kapil Sibal also argued that a political party has primacy in the relationship between the legislature and the political party. The Shinde camp lawyers countered this point and said that the political party and legislative party are conjoined and connected and the argument made by Uddhav Thackeray camp that the other factions represent the legislative party and not a political party is a fallacy. Senior Advocate NK Kaul further submitted that dissent is the hallmark of democracy.