NEW DELHI: Sunil Prabhu of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the 39 rebel Sena MLAs, including chief minister Eknath Shinde, for falling afoul of the Tenth Schedule and debarring them from taking part in the trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly.
Appearing for Prabhu, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala that “the problem that faces the assembly and all of us is that there is no merger (of the Shinde faction with BJP) as per Tenth Schedule”.
“If both sides (Uddhav Thackeray and the Shinde faction) are going to issue a whip, how is one going to control the proceedings of the House. Whose whip will count? The moment Shinde was sworn in as CM, he violated Paragraph 2(1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule (voluntarily giving up membership of a party on whose ticket he/she is elected to Assembly),” Sibal said.
The senior counsel said the Shinde faction is not the party and who is the real Shiv Sena could only be decided by the Election Commission after due scrutiny of claims made by the factions. “It is not within the jurisdiction of the governor to recognise a faction as the real Shiv Sena and assume a merger prior to inviting them to form government. This is ex-facie not a dance of democracy,” he said.
The bench said, “We are fully conscious of what is happening and assure you that we will definitely examine this issue. In whatever way it is happening, we have not shut our eyes. We will decide this issue after going through the arguments of both sides.”
When Sibal asked “but, how will the votes be counted”, the bench said, “let us see what procedure they ultimately will evolve. If that procedure is also defective, please file an additional affidavit, we will consider that also.”
The bench posted this application for hearing on July 11 along with pending petitions by Shinde and rebel MLAs challenging the notice for disqualification given by the deputy speaker even after the breakaway group of Sena MLAs had served notice for his removal.
Prabhu, in his application filed through advocate Javedur Rahman, said, “Till date there is no dispute insofar as the leadership position of Shri Uddhav Thackeray as the President of Shiv Sena political party is concerned… despite the rebellion by Shinde faction, the original Shiv Sena political party remains under the leadership of Thackeray.”
As an interim measure, Prabhu said, “In the very least, the delinquent MLAs deserve to be suspended from the membership of the House while the Tenth Schedule proceedings are pending consideration.”
Appearing for Prabhu, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala that “the problem that faces the assembly and all of us is that there is no merger (of the Shinde faction with BJP) as per Tenth Schedule”.
“If both sides (Uddhav Thackeray and the Shinde faction) are going to issue a whip, how is one going to control the proceedings of the House. Whose whip will count? The moment Shinde was sworn in as CM, he violated Paragraph 2(1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule (voluntarily giving up membership of a party on whose ticket he/she is elected to Assembly),” Sibal said.
The senior counsel said the Shinde faction is not the party and who is the real Shiv Sena could only be decided by the Election Commission after due scrutiny of claims made by the factions. “It is not within the jurisdiction of the governor to recognise a faction as the real Shiv Sena and assume a merger prior to inviting them to form government. This is ex-facie not a dance of democracy,” he said.
The bench said, “We are fully conscious of what is happening and assure you that we will definitely examine this issue. In whatever way it is happening, we have not shut our eyes. We will decide this issue after going through the arguments of both sides.”
When Sibal asked “but, how will the votes be counted”, the bench said, “let us see what procedure they ultimately will evolve. If that procedure is also defective, please file an additional affidavit, we will consider that also.”
The bench posted this application for hearing on July 11 along with pending petitions by Shinde and rebel MLAs challenging the notice for disqualification given by the deputy speaker even after the breakaway group of Sena MLAs had served notice for his removal.
Prabhu, in his application filed through advocate Javedur Rahman, said, “Till date there is no dispute insofar as the leadership position of Shri Uddhav Thackeray as the President of Shiv Sena political party is concerned… despite the rebellion by Shinde faction, the original Shiv Sena political party remains under the leadership of Thackeray.”
As an interim measure, Prabhu said, “In the very least, the delinquent MLAs deserve to be suspended from the membership of the House while the Tenth Schedule proceedings are pending consideration.”