Sena versus Sena: How Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s observations differ from Supreme Court’s 2023 findings

“The recognition (of Gogawale as Chief Whip) was based on the resolution of a faction of the Shiv Sena Legislative Party (SSLP) without undertaking an exercise to determine if it was the decision of the political party,” the Supreme Court had said. Therefore, the apex court had laid down that Narwekar, who was seized of the disqualification proceedings, will have to first decide which faction was the “real Shiv Sena”.

The Supreme Court had said that Narwekar’s decision should not be influenced by the Election Commission (EC) ruling of February 2023 that found Shinde’s faction to be the “real” Shiv Sena.

After deciding which is the real Shiv Sena political party, the Supreme Court had asked the Speaker to recognise the Whip and the Leader, “who are duly authorised by the political party” after considering the relevant party constitution and keeping in mind the principles laid down in the verdict.

“This is not a game of numbers, but of something more. The structure of leadership outside the Legislative Assembly is a consideration which is relevant to the determination of this issue,” the Constitution bench had noted. It had added that the appointment of Whip by the “political party” was “crucial for sustenance of the Tenth schedule of the Constitution”.

Narwekar, after examining material on record before him, held that the Shinde faction, which had an overwhelming legislative majority of 37 of 55 MLAs, was “the real political party” when the rival factions emerged on June 21, 2022.

He noted that while the 2018 party leadership structure was relevant in the present case, it was not in conformity with the “only official” 1999 party constitution, hence cannot be relied upon. Therefore, he relied on the legislative majority to decide who the real Shiv Sena was.

In his verdict, Speaker Narwekar noted that since the Shinde faction was held to be the “real” Shiv Sena political party, Sunil Prabhu (of the Uddhav Thackeray faction) “ceased to be the duly authorised whip from June 21, 2022 and “Gogawale was validly appointed as the Whip” by the Shiv Sena political party on the said day.

Moreover, the Supreme Court had also held that the appointment of Eknath Shinde as the “leader” of the party was “illegal”. It had noted that “the Speaker had recognised the action of a faction of SSLP without determining whether they represented the will of the party”, which was “contrary” to provisions of the Tenth Schedule and the relevant Rules.

Narwekar discarded Thackeray group’s submission that as per the 2018 leadership structure, the post of ‘Pakshapramukh (party chief)’ was held by Uddhav, therefore his authority to remove a leader from the party reflected the “will of the political party” in case of a rift.

“When there is vertical rift and two factions emerge, leaders of both factions (Thackeray and Shinde) can equally claim the will of the political party,” he held, adding that Thackeray did not have the power to remove Shinde as leader of the legislature party.

Narwekar held that Shinde was validly appointed as the “leader” by the Shiv Sena political party on June 21, 2022.