The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, seeking a response to a plea for the swift resolution of pending disqualification petitions against Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from two factions of the Shiv Sena. The notice, returnable in two weeks, was issued by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra.
The plea was filed by Sunil Prabhu, an MLA from the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena. The plea comes at a time when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs, including Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal, have joined the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena.
In his plea, Prabhu pointed out that a Supreme Court Constitution Bench had directed the Speaker on May 11 this year to decide on the pending disqualification petitions within a reasonable period. However, he argued that no such action has been taken so far. Prabhu contended that the constitutional requirement of fairness necessitates the Speaker to decide on the question of disqualification promptly. He further argued that the Speaker’s inaction in deciding the disqualification proceedings constitutes “an act of grave constitutional impropriety.”
The Supreme Court’s May 11 judgment was in response to a case that originated from the split of the Shiv Sena political party into two factions. Following the split in June 2022, Shinde replaced Thackeray as Maharashtra’s Chief Minister. After the split, rebel MLAs of the Shinde faction received disqualification notices from the then Deputy Speaker for acting against the party whip while voting in the Member of Legislative Council (MLC) elections in the State.
The Supreme Court was called upon to consider whether rebel members should be disqualified. On June 27, 2022, the Court granted interim relief to Shinde and his rebel group of MLAs by extending the time to file responses to the disqualification notices sent by the Deputy Speaker, till July 12. Subsequently, the Court also approved a floor test called for by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
This led to the fall of the Thackeray government, following which Shinde took oath as Chief Minister with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the single largest party in the House. Nearly a year later, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by CJI DY Chandrachud held that Koshyari’s decision to call for a floor test based on the request of 34 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde faction was incorrect. The Court held that Koshyari did not have enough objective material before him to conclude that the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had lost the confidence of the house.
However, the Court noted that the status quo could not be restored since Thackeray did not face the floor test, but chose to resign. The Court directed the Speaker of the Maharashtra legislative assembly, Rahul Narwekar, to decide on the pending disqualification petitions against MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray factions of Shiv Sena.