Shiv Sena Row: SC Defers Hearing on UBT Faction’s Plea Challenging Maha Speaker’s Order to Jan 22

The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the hearing to January 22 on a plea filed by the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) faction of Shiv Sena against the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker’s order.

The Speaker had declared the Sena bloc led by CM Eknath Shinde as the “real political party” following its split in June 2022.

The plea, filed on Monday by the Thackeray faction, was scheduled for a hearing by a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on January 19, as per the apex court registry.

The bench also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, received a request from senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Thackeray group, to reschedule the hearing for Monday of the following week instead of the initially set date of that Friday.

“We will hear it on Monday,” responded the Chief Justice.

On January 15, the Thackeray faction, represented by lawyer Rohit Sharma, approached the top court to challenge the Speaker’s decision on January 10, which declared the Sena bloc led by Shinde as the “real political party.” The Speaker, Rahul Narwekar of Maharashtra, had also turned down the Thackeray faction’s request to disqualify 16 MLAs from the ruling camp, including Shinde.