Background:
The Maharashtra political crisis revolves around the disqualification of Eknath Shinde Faction of the Shiv Sena party after the Maharashtra election in 2022. The same was challenged by Shinde in the SC. Thackeray contended to the SC that the MLA’s of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena party can only save themselves through merger to another party. The dispute arises on which association is the real or original “shiv sena”. Subsequently, the Thackeray Faction plea was rejected by the SC and the same was transferred to a 7-bench court. Thackeray faction pleaded that the election commission should be challenged on recognizing Eknath Shinde led shiv sena to be original shiv Sena. On May 2023, the SC held the verdict that Eknath Shinde will continue as the CM of Maharashtra. The election commission gave the Shinde led party the original shiv sena sign of bow and arrow and the official name of shiv sena.
Current Scenario:
The SC gave appropriate notice to the Speaker, Rahul Narwekar to adjudicate on the matter relating to disqualification by January 10th 2024 and criticized the delay in adjudication process.
The Maharashtra Legislative assembly speaker, Rahul Narwekar gave a final verdict that the Eknath-Shinde led party as the original Shiv Sena party. He also rejected the disqualification notice produced by Thackeray to disqualify 16 MLA’s of the ruling party, including the chief minister, Eknath Shinde.
The challenge of Eknath Shinde against Thackeray is that he is the paksh pramukh which means he is the party head of the shiv sena party on the basis of legislative majority and Thackeray did not have the power to remove him. However, as per the 1999 party’s constitution amendment, the national executive as the highest party body.
References were taken to the 10th Schedule of the Constitution which mentions about Anti-defection laws. It states that a member shall be disqualified if he joins another political party after election takes place. It also mentions that a disqualification on the name of defection cannot be applied in the cases of merger. Under the 10th Schedule, the speaker acts in the power of a judge and decides whether the grounds of disqualification justified.
The speaker also stated that in the name of 10th Schedule, a dissent or disqualification cannot be enforced within a party over disciplinary issues. The main reason for upholding Shinde faction to be the original shiv sena was because Thackeray faction failed the test of legislative majority. The Shinde faction had the majority of the MLA’s present in the shiv sena members with 37MLA as opposed to 18MLAs in the Thackeray faction.
Interpretation of Schedule 10 of the Constitution:
The genesis of Schedule 10 of the constitution states that a defense for anti-defection is based on the merger of parties and not the split of parties. In the current matter, the factual basis of Shinde let party is that it did not merge to another party but rather split from shiv sena. This is not permitted under the Schedule 10 of the constitution.
The speaker contended that whoever the majority MLA lies with is the original party. It is argued that the test of “legislative majority” is not recognized under the 10th Schedule as the only recourse available for anti defection is merger. It should be noted that from the 2019 elections, the Shiv Sena party was fundamentally led by the Thackeray faction and not by the Shinde faction. The supreme court on its verdict regarding the matter held that a legislative party should be distinguished from a political party. It also held that the power to appoint a government whip lies within the political party which was Thackeray led government at that time.
The Thackeray led faction has planned to challenge the verdict in the SC on the principal contention of challenging the rule of ‘majority legislators’ not being the core principle of Schedule 10.
Conclusion :
The political dynamic of Maharashtra’s shiv sena party is that of game of cat and mouse. Despite the CM being won on majority supporting him, the challenge to the verdict shows a long lasting battle between Shinde and Thackeray in the upcoming years.
The court is also to fact the question whether the parliament or the speaker should have the power of adjudication without having bias over the parties involved.
