SC to consider Thackeray group’s plea against Shinde, MLAs on Aug 7

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on August 7 a plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s order declaring the Shiv Sena bloc led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the “real political party” after its split in June 2022.

The Speaker had also dismissed the disqualification petitions of the Thackeray faction against CM Shinde and his supporting MLAs. The observation related to the hearing of the Thackeray faction’s plea came from a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud when senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the party, flagged the issue of tagging of the plea with another pertaining to the NCP row. “The Shiv Sena matter is listed for hearing on August 6 and it is unnecessarily tagged with the NCP (case on Monday),” Sibal said. The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, clarified that on Monday, it had said the NCP and the Shiv Sena matter will be heard together one after the another and they were not tagged.

“We will hear it on August 7,” the CJI told Sibal.