The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider listing a plea from the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order declaring the Shiv Sena bloc led by Eknath Shinde as the authentic political party following its split in June 2022.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra acknowledged the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, that the plea scheduled for Monday has not yet been heard.
"We will see it," the CJI remarked. On January 22, the top court issued notices to Chief Minister Shinde and other lawmakers of his group regarding the Thackeray faction's challenge to the speaker's order.
The court had then instructed the plea to be listed after two weeks. The Thackeray faction alleges that Shinde unlawfully seized power and is leading an unconstitutional government.
In an order issued on January 10, Speaker Narwekar also dismissed the Thackeray faction's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde. Contesting the Speaker's orders, the Thackeray faction contends they are blatantly unlawful and perverse, asserting that instead of penalizing defection, they reward defectors by recognizing them as the political party.