The Supreme Court on Wednesday (22nd July) refused to stay the decision of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to recognise the merger of six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe issued notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker, asking him to respond.
The Bench agreed to hear a plea challenging Birla’s decision after two weeks. “We have issued notice. We will consider. File counter. After two weeks,” the Court said.
Appearing for Shiv Sena (UBT), Senior Advocate Devdutt Kamat opposed Birla’s decision, arguing that no disqualification petitions are pending before him and so there was no need to pass the order of merger. He also said that the merger order was signed by a Joint Secretary and not by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
“6 MPs chosen on my party symbol. No disqualification proceedings are pending. Question of deciding on the merger has not even arisen. Please have a look at the circular which was issued,” Kamat said. “These 6 MPs unilaterally decide that now Shiv Sena UBT has to merge with a rival political party. There is absolutely no merger,” he said, adding that the case involves questions of constitutional morality and propriety.
“This whole thing has been orchestrated. There is grave urgency. Your lordships are well aware. All these processes get defeated by afflux of time. We are not on the 10th schedule. Speaker has no jurisdiction to pass an order on merger,” he claimed.
Earlier, on Tuesday, the Court had refused to urgently list a plea filed against the merger order of the Lok Sabha Speaker. The matter was mentioned before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant for urgent listing by Senior Advocate Kamat.
The merger order was passed by the Lok Sabha Speaker on 18th July, recognising the actions of six MPs, who unilaterally sought to “merge” themselves with the rival Shiv Sena faction led by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The six MPs, Sanjay Jadhav, Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Sanjay Deshmukh, Nagesh Patil Ashtikar, Omraje Nimbalkar and Sanjay Patil, had joined the Shiv Sena in June in the presence of Eknath Shinde.
The petition stated that the six MPs were chosen by the electorate who voted for Shiv Sena (UBT)’s campaign and leadership. It alleged that within two years of the election, the MPs betrayed the faith reposed in them by asking for a merger with the rival Shiv Sena led by Shinde.
The plea argued that the merger had no constitutional or legal sanction as the legislators acted based solely on unilateral claims by the legislators and lacked the consent of their parent political party.
