SC agrees to list Uddhav Thackeray's plea challenging Speaker's order

New Delhi: In a relief for Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray's faction, the Supreme Cout agreed to list their plea that challenges Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar's order declaring the Shinde group of Shiv Sena the "real political party". The Speaker made such an order after the party split in June 2022.

An SC bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, that the plea, which was to be listed on Monday, has not come up.

"We will see it," the CJI said.

The top court on January 22 issued notices to Chief Minister Shinde and other lawmakers of his group on the plea of the Thackeray faction challenging the Speaker's order.

The court had then ordered a listing of the plea after two weeks.

The Thackeray faction has alleged that Shinde "unconstitutionally usurped power" and is heading an "unconstitutional government".

In his order passed on January 10, Speaker Narwekar had also rejected the Thackeray faction's plea to disqualify 16 MLAs of the ruling camp, including Shinde.

Challenging the orders passed by the Speaker, the Thackeray faction has claimed they are "patently unlawful and perverse" and that instead of punishing the act of defection, they reward the defectors by holding they comprise the political party.

Last month, a curious development happened with the Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena.

Well-known economist and ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, called on at his residence on January last week, setting tongues wagging in political circles in the state. The meeting, described as a "courtesy call", nevertheless fueled intense political speculation, though Shiv Sena Thackeray faction leaders and other Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bigwigs remained tight-lipped about it.