Shiv Sena rift: SC declines to immediately refer Rebia judgment to 7-judge bench

Uddhav Thackeray (left) and Ekanth Shinde. (Representative Image)

A Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, which is hearing issues related to the political crisis in Maharashtra, declined on February 17 to immediately refer the Nabam Rebia judgment to a larger Bench of the Supreme Court (SC).

The Nabam Rebia judgment relates to a political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh in 2016.

On February 17, the top court held that a final decision on the judgment will be based on the merits of the Shinde-Thackarey battle, and not in an isolated manner.

The court will now hear the case pertaining to the Maharashtra crisis from February 21.

On February 16, the SC had reserved its verdict on pleas related to the June 2022 Maharashtra crisis, triggered by a rift in the Shiv Sena, seeking the reference of the 2016 Nabam Rebia judgement to a seven-judge Bench for reconsideration.

The Shiv Sena faction, led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, had sought the disqualification of MLAs belonging to the Eknath Shinde camp. Shinde is the Chief Minister.

Nabam Rebia is a former Speaker of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. In 2016, a Constitution Bench, while deciding the Rebia case, had held that the Speaker cannot proceed with the disqualification proceedings of MLAs when a notice seeking the removal of the speaker is already pending in the House.

When the Thackeray faction sought the disqualification of MLAs from the Shinde faction, the Shinde camp invoked the Rebia principle and argued that a notice by the Shinde group for the removal of Maharashtra Assembly deputy speaker Narhari Sitaram Zirwal, a Thackeray loyalist, is pending before the House.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi, appearing for the Thackeray camp, sought the reference of the Nabam Rebia judgment to a seven-judge bench for a re-look.

A crisis erupted in the state after an open revolt in the Shiv Sena. On June 29, 2022, the apex court refused to stay the direction of the Maharashtra governor to the 31-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take a floor test to prove its majority, after which Thackeray quit office.

On August 23, 2022, a three-judge bench of the top court, headed by then chief justice N V Ramana, since retired, had formulated several questions of law and referred to the five-judge bench the petitions filed by the two Sena factions, raising several constitutional questions related to defections, merger and disqualification.

It said the batch of petitions raised important issues related to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution pertaining to disqualification, powers of the speaker and governor and judicial review.

The apex court had said the proposition of law laid down by the Constitution Bench in the Nabam Rebia case stands on contradictory reasoning, which requires gap-filling to uphold constitutional morality.

The Tenth Schedule seeks to prevent the defection of elected and nominated members and contains stringent provisions against defections.