Uddhav Thackeray camp moves Supreme Court seeking stay on EC proceedings in Shinde faction's plea for 'real Shiv Sena' tag

The Uddhav Thackeray camp of Shiv Sena has filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on Election Commission of India (ECI) proceedings which were initiated on a plea by the Eknath Shinde faction to be recognised as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena [Subhash Desai v Principal Secretary]..The Thackeray camp has told the top court that after the Supreme Court last heard the case relating to Maharashtra elections, they made a representation to the ECI requesting it not to proceed with the matter, as substantially similar matters were pending before the top court. In this regard, an oral observation by the bench for maintenance of status quo was also brought to the notice of the poll body..The plea alleged that despite this, on 22 July, the applicants were served with a notice from the ECI. It was stated that this was in complete disregard to the sanctity of proceedings pending before the apex court as well as the expected role of the ECI as a Constitutional authority.“Despite being asked not to precipitate the matter and stay its hand, the Hon’ble ECI has decided to initiate proceedings.. without taking into account the proceedings before this Hon’ble Court as well as the oral observation to maintain status quo," the application said. .It was further contended that if the ECI is allowed to continue with the proceedings, it would not only precipitate issues of great Constitutional import, but would also cause irreparable injury to the applicant..It would also amount to interference with the judicial proceedings and thus, amount to contempt of court, stated the applicant.“Further such proceedings would also be in teeth of settled law that an inquiry into a matter which is sub judice before the Court amounts to interference with the judicial proceedings and thus, amounts to contempt of the court as has been held in a number of decisions of this Hon’ble Court and various High Courts," the plea said..The applicants, thus, prayed for a stay on the ECI proceedings and also sought impleadment of the poll body as a party to the case before the top court so as to prevent any adverse orders by them..The Supreme Court had last week issued notice in a batch of petitions, including one by newly elected Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and 14 other Shiv Sena Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) challenging the disqualification proceedings initiated against them by the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, The top court gave parties time to file replies in the matter and requested the parties to prepare one common compilation and proceeded to list the matter on August 1.Earlier this month, the Court had asked the new Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Rahul Narwekar not to take any action on the new disqualification notices issued to 53 Shiv Sena MLAs..Maharashtra was thrown into a political crisis after Shinde and a rebel group of MLAs left the State first for Surat and then for Guwahati. The Shinde group has expressed its displeasure with the Shiv Sena's alliance with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.Some of the rebel MLAs then received disqualification notices from the Deputy Speaker for acting against the party whip while voting during the Member of Legislative Council (MLC) elections in the State. The rebel MLAs then approached the top court against the disqualification notices.The Supreme Court on June 27 granted interim relief to Shinde and his rebel group of MLAs by extending the time to file responses to the disqualification notices sent by the Deputy Speaker, till July 12.Subsequently, the Court on June 29 also gave the go-ahead to a floor test called for by the Governor.This led to the fall of Uddhav Thackeray led government and Shinde was subsequently sworn-in as Chief Minister of State with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).