Uddhav faction of Shiv Sena to seek adjudication of cases by 7-judge bench on Jan 10

The Supreme Court was apprised by the Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena faction that it will seek reference of cases related to the Maharashtra political crisis to a seven-judge bench to have a relook of a 2016 judgment on powers of assembly speakers to deal with disqualification pleas.

In 2016, a five-judge constitution bench, while deciding the Nabam Rebia case, had held that the assembly speaker cannot proceed with a plea for disqualification of MLAs if a prior notice seeking removal of the speaker is pending decision in the House.

This decision had come to the rescue of rebel MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, now the chief minister of Maharashtra, in the apex court on the ground of pendency of a notice for removal of assembly deputy speaker Narhari Sitaram Zariwal.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, while hearing a batch of pleas related to the Maharashtra political crisis triggered by the Shiv Sena's division, was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Thackeray faction, that he will be seeking reference of matters to a seven-judge bench to have a relook of the 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case.

Earlier this year, the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state that comprised the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress collapsed after Sena MLA Shinde and 39 other legislators rebelled against the party's leadership. This later led to the division in the Shiv Sena with one faction headed by Thackeray and the other by Shinde.

The note shall be circulated at least two weeks in advance to the other respondents (Shinde faction and others). The respondents would be at liberty to circulate a brief note of submissions in response. Both sets of notes shall be compiled by the nodal counsel and be circulated to the bench, it said. The bench then fixed the pleas on January 10 for issuing directions.

The political crisis in the state had aggravated after the rebellion in the Shiv Sena and on June 29, the apex court had refused to stay the direction of the Maharashtra governor to the 31-month-old MVA government to take a floor test in the assembly to prove its majority after which beleaguered chief minister Thackeray quit office.