Bombay:
As the Supreme Court said on Tuesday it will begin a hearing on Feb. 14 on pleas filed by rival Shiv Sena factions, Maharashtra opposition leader Ajit Pawar claimed that there’s “tarikh par tarikh‘ (date after date), suggesting a lengthy legal battle over the case.
He said the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), an ally of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, is taking the case through its lawyers in the top court.
The Supreme Court said it will begin a hearing on Feb. 14 on pleas related to the political crisis in Maharashtra triggered by Shiv Sena’s division in June last year.
A five-judge constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was told by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared before the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction, that he will refer the cases to a seven-judge bench to review the case . a 2016 ruling on the authority of assembly speakers to hear disqualification requests.
NCP leader Pawar commented on the development in the Supreme Court, telling reporters: “Tarikh par tarikh hone wali hain (there will be dates after dates for hearing). It is their (judicial) right. Can anyone ask the judiciary (about this)?” The former cabinet minister said that the Shiv Sena (UBT) is doing the job of presenting its case through lawyers and that it is the prerogative of the top court to determine the date of the hearing and when a judgment must be made .
“It is completely their (SC) right. We also see that it has been six months (since the uprising in Shiv Sena) and dates (for hearing) are given. Now they have given the next date as February 14,” said the leader of the opposition in the state assembly.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said as the hearing falls on February 14 (celebrated as Valentine’s Day), “everything will happen with love.” “From February 14, the constitution bench will deal with the case without interruption. This is very important for us,” he told reporters.
Maharashtra faced a political crisis in June last year after a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, who is now prime minister, rebelled against the party leadership, leading to the collapse of Maharash’s 31-month-old government. Vikas Aghadi (MVA). which also consisted of Congress and the NCP.
The uprising led to a division in the Shiv Sena with one faction led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Shinde. They later filed pleas against each other in the highest court.
On 23 August, a three-judge SC bench headed by the then Chief Justice N. V. Ramana, who had since retired, had formulated several points of law and referred the petitions submitted by the factions raising various constitutional issues related to apostasy to a bench of five judges. merger and disqualification.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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