The Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench reserved judgement on Thursday on whether the judgement delivered by a 5-judge bench in the case Nabam Rebia vs Deputy Speaker (2016) should be reconsidered by a larger bench.
Following a rift within the Shiv Sena party between the groups led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, a change of State Government in Maharashtra took place in July 2022.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud was hearing a number of petitions relating to these political developments.
For three days, the bench, which also included Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and PS Narasimha, heard arguments on the need for reference.
According to Nabam Rebia, If a notice under Article 179(c) of the Constitution for removal is pending, a Speaker will be barred from deciding disqualification petitions under the anti-defection law (10th schedule of the Constitution).
In the current case, the lawyers representing the Uddhav group have called this viewpoint into question. The Shinde side maintains that no reference is required.
The Nabam Rebia principle was invoked in this case by the Shinde group to argue that the Deputy Speaker cannot proceed under tenth schedule against the dissident MLAs as a notice seeking his removal is pending.
The deadline for the Shinde camp MLAs to respond to the Deputy Speaker’s notice under the 10th schedule was extended by the Supreme Court’s vacation bench on June 27, 2022, until July 12.
The following day, the Governor asked the Uddhav Thackeray government to seek trust vote on June 30,2022.
On June 29, the Supreme Court’s vacation bench declined to postpone the vote on trust. Following that, Uddhav Thackeray announced his resignation as the Chief Minister.
11 issues in the case, including whether Nabam Rebia was accurate, were referred to a five-judge bench by a three-judge bench in August 2022. The 3-judge bench prima facie observed that the reasoning in Nabam Rebia was contradictory.
