Supreme Court agrees to hearing against Uddhav Thackeray’s rebel MPs, notice sent to Lok Sabha Secretariat-MPs

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT), in which Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has challenged the decision of allowing the merger of 6 party MPs with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena. Also, the court has issued notice to the Lok Sabha Secretariat and the MPs who left the party.

Justice P.S. The bench of Justice Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe issued notice on the petition on Wednesday and sought response from the Lok Sabha Speaker’s Office (Secretariat) and other respondents. The bench said, “Let notice be issued.” Also, the court listed the next hearing of the case after 2 weeks.

Speaker had approved the merger

On July 18, 2 days before the monsoon session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker (Om Birla) had given permission to the merger of 6 MPs of Shiv Sena (UBT) with Eknath Shinde’s party. Official sources had said that after the merger of 6 rebel MPs, the number of Shiv Sena members in the Lok Sabha has increased to 13.

Earlier yesterday on Tuesday, senior advocate Devdutt Kamat, on behalf of the Thackeray faction, mentioned the case before the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi. Kamat requested the court to list the petition for hearing on Wednesday.

‘Involved in the elections against whom you contested’

In his petition, Kamat said that the Speaker has recognized the merger of 6 MPs. He also said that this has become a new trend at the national level, with MPs joining the parties against which they had contested and won.

A total of 9 MPs were elected in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on the ticket of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, but now 6 of these MPs have defected and joined Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

In its petition filed in the Supreme Court, Shiv Sena (UBT) had argued before the Lok Sabha Speaker that its rebel MPs should be disqualified as it comes under the ambit of anti-defection law. However, the Speaker gave his approval to the merger of rebel MPs with Shinde faction.