Eknath Shinde vs Uddhav Thackeray in Supreme Court: The lawyers fighting for the two rival camps

The political turmoil in Maharashtra reached the Supreme Court on Monday, with the apex court giving the breakaway faction, headed by Eknath Shinde, until 11 July to respond to the disqualification notice.  Shinde, in his plea, called the action to issue disqualification notices to them on 21 June as “illegal and unconstitutional” and seeks a stay on it.

Shinde has also claimed in his petition that 38 MLAs of his group have withdrawn support to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state and the incumbent government no longer holds the majority.

A second petition has also been filed in the apex court challenging Zirwal’s decision to recognise Ajay Choudhary as leader of the Shiv Sena Legislature Party in place of Shinde.

A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala is hearing the cases, which are listed as items number 34 and 35.

While senior advocate Harish Salve is representing the rebel camp, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal have taken up the baton for Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena. Singhvi and Salve had their last face-off during the Rajasthan political crisis precipitated by the wrangling between Congress’s Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. So people can expect nothing but fireworks in the courtroom.

Here’s what you need to know about these legal warriors:

Harish Salve

Salve commands global reputation for international commercial arbitration and litigation. His specialties include public international law, human rights, civil fraud, public, energy and tax. He was formerly the Solicitor General of India and is a senior advocate at the Indian Bar (1992), practising largely in the Supreme Court of India. In 2015, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.

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Some of the most important cases he has fought includes the the Kulbhushan Jadhav Case where he represented India at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and more significantly, emerged victorious against Pakistan. He represented the Uttar Pradesh government in the recent Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, Uphaar fire tragedy victims and the Talwar couple in the Arushi Talwar murder case among other high-profile cases.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi

According to his website, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, is an eminent jurist, parliamentarian, visible media personality, well-known columnist, author and commentator. MP; national spokesperson for Congress; former Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on Law; former Addl Solicitor General, India; former Chairman, AICC Law & Human Rights Department; writer, speaker and thinker. He has been at the forefront of most of the court battles of Congress leaders, including Karti Chidambaram; Rahul and Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case and Navjot Singh Sidhu in the 1987 road rage case among others.

Kapil Sibal

The former Congressman, who resigned from the party on 16 May, held the law, telecom and human resource development portfolios under the Manmohan Singh government. To his name, he has the triple talaq, Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid, Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Somnath temple, anti-Citizenship (amendment act), and Maratha quota cases among others.

With input from agencies

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