Supreme Court relief to Shiv Sena rebel MLAs

New Delhi: The tussle between the Shiv Sena leadership and rebel MLAs, which threatens to bring down the Maharashtra government, moved from the hotel to the courtroom on Monday. In a relief to rebel Shiv Sena lawmakers, the Supreme Court has kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings before the Deputy Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly till July 11 and sought responses to pleas by rebel MLAs questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.

The apex court will now hear the matter on July 11. The top court, however, refused to pass any interim order on the plea of the Maharashtra government that there should not be any floor test in the Assembly and said they cannot always approach it in case of illegality.

A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala directed the Maharashtra government to protect the life, liberty, and property of 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs and their family members.

While issuing notice to the Maharashtra Deputy Speaker, the top court directed him to put on affidavit records of no trust notice served upon him by rebel MLAs. The top court also recorded the statement of Maharashtra's counsel that adequate steps have been taken to protect the life and property of rebel MLAs. Eknath Shinde, who leads the rebellion, had challenged the Uddhav Thackeray leadership's move to disqualify him and 15 other MLAs in the Supreme Court. The Shinde camp also challenged the rejection of a no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Narahari Zirwal. 34 rebel MLAs had signed the no-confidence motion against the Deputy Speaker.