Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday reacted to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to challenge the former’s verdict that Eknath Shinde’s Sena was the real Shiv Sena in the Supreme Court, saying that every citizen has the right to approach the judiciary.

He, however, said that approaching the court does not mean that the verdict passed by the speaker can be overturned as the baseless allocations can’t substantiate that.

“Every citizen of India has the right to approach the Supreme Court & High Court. However, just because you approach the court does not mean that the order passed by the Speaker is overturned, you have to establish that it is illegal or untenable in the eyes of the law. Your baseless allocations do not substantiate that,” news agency ANI quoted Nawekar as saying.

Thackeray said that Eknath Shinde is the real Shiv Sena, then why the speaker did not disqualify his faction. “I think the Assembly Speaker did not understand the mandate — what he was asked to do. It was a simple case of disqualification. The Supreme Court laid down a framework but the Speaker thought he was above the Supreme Court and came up with his own court and verdict,” he said.

Narwekar on Wednesday, in a landmark verdict, ruled that Shinde’s faction was the real Shiv Sena and dismissed the petitions filed by the UBT faction. He also said that Thackeray had no right to remove Shinde as the leader of the legislature party as according to the constitution of the party, the national executive was the supreme body and not the paksha pramukh, which was Uddhav.

The opposition leaders including Congress’ Nana Patole and NCP’s Sharad Pawar strongly reacted to the verdict saying verdict of the Maharashtra assembly speaker is against the guidelines determined by the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from agencies)

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