Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS): The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notice to all respondents in the petition filed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, challenging Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's January 10 verdict on the disqualification of Shiv Sena-UBT) MLAs.

A division bench of Justice G.S. Kulkarni and Justice F.P. Pooniwalla has issued the notice to the Speaker, the Legislature Secretariat and the 14 SS-UBT MLAs, against whom the ruling Shiv Sena's Chief Whip Bharat Gogavale has filed the plea.

The judges have posted the matter for further hearing on February 8, even as the SS-UBT led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray has approached the Supreme Court.

On January 10, the Speaker ruled that the (original) Shiv Sena belongs to Shinde and not ex-CM Thackeray, and approved Gogavale as the Chief Whip, but rejected the pleas by both rival factions for disqualification of the legislators from the opposite sides.

Both warring Sena factions have challenged the Speaker’s ruling - the Shiv Sena has petitioned against it in the Bombay High Court, while the Shiv Sena-UBT has moved the apex court where it is expected to come up for hearing next week.