The Supreme Court announced that it will schedule a hearing for the plea filed by the Uddhav Thackeray faction on March 7. This plea challenges Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's decision declaring the Shiv Sena bloc led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real political party following the party's split in June 2022.
Originally, the Thackeray faction's plea was supposed to be heard on March 1 before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud. However, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray faction, noted that it was not included in the list of scheduled matters. He requested the bench, which also includes Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, to reschedule it for March 7.
We will list it for hearing on March 7 (Thursday), the chief justice of India said, adding that several matters, which were to be listed on March 1, could not be accommodated in the list as the bench has to rise early. On February 5 and 12, the top court assured early listing of the plea after Sibal mentioned it.
On January 22, the Supreme Court issued notices to Chief Minister Shinde and other lawmakers of his group in response to the plea filed by the Thackeray bloc challenging the speaker's order. The court directed that the matter be listed for hearing after a two-week period. The Thackeray faction has accused Shinde of unlawfully seizing power and leading an unconstitutional government in Maharashtra.
In an order issued on January 10, Speaker Narwekar dismissed the Thackeray faction's request to disqualify 16 MLAs from the ruling camp, including Shinde. The Thackeray faction has criticized the speaker's decision as "patently unlawful and perverse. They argue that instead of penalizing the act of defection, the speaker's ruling rewards the defectors by recognizing them as the legitimate political party.