"What Moral, Legal Right...": Abhishek Singhvi Slams Eknath Shinde Faction

Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who argued for Uddhav Thackeray's side in Supreme Court in Maharashtra political crisis case on Thursday questioned the moral and legal right of the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra Govt to continue when there are findings against the Governor, Speaker and the recognition of the whip.

While talking to mediapersons, Mr Singhvi said, "The Speaker should disqualify the MLAs. Only by doing this justice will be served."

He added, "What moral and legal right does this government has to continue for even a minute more when there are findings against the Governor, Speaker and the recognition of the Whip?"

The Supreme Court on Thursday referred its 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case to a larger bench.

The top court was delivering its judgment in the case of the defection of 16 MLAs in June 2022 from the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. The Thackeray faction had sought disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law of the country.

The Nabam Rebia judgment had held that Speakers cannot issue disqualification notices when a notice seeking their removal are pending.

The Supreme Court also said the Speaker if he finds that the motion for his removal is not as per procedure, then he could proceed with the petitions seeking disqualification of the MLAs.

The court held that the Speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale (Eknath Shinde) as the whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal.

The top court said that the Speaker should recognize only the whip appointed by the political party.

The verdict was delivered by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprised Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha.

The five-judge bench delivered the judgment on a batch of cross-petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray and chief minister M Eknath Shinde factions on the Maharashtra political crisis.

The then-governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's had decided to invite Mr Shinde to form the government along with the Bharatiya Janata Party after Mr Thackeray chose to resign.

The court had earlier reserved the order after all the parties concluded their arguments.

The lawyer appearing for the Uddhav Thackeray camp had said that the illegal act of the Maharashtra Governor is a prior pending sub judice challenge before the trust vote.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Uddhav Thackeray's camp had said that the Governor cannot call for a trust vote based on a faction as calling for a trust vote is based on alliances.

During the hearing, the Court had observed that Governor should not enter into any area which precipitates the fall of a government and called Maharashtra's political crisis a "serious issue for democracy".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)