The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s decision to recognise the merger of six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.A Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, however, issued notice to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker and others on a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) member Arvind Ganpat Sawant challenging the Speaker’s decision.Asking the respondents to file their replies to the petition, the Bench posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.On behalf of Shiv Sena (UBT), senior counsel Devadatt Kamat submitted, “This raises important questions of constitutional morality and propriety, and goes to the heart of parliamentary democracy. 6 MPs out of 9 chosen on my party symbol; no disqualification proceedings are pending. Question on merger has not arisen as what your lordships said in Subhash Desai…whole thing orchestrated only for the purposes of parliament session, my lords may take it next week.”The Bench, however, refused to grant any interim relief at this stage.Senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, contested Kamat’s arguments.On July 18, Birla approved the merger of six Shiv Sena UBT MPs — Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal), Sanjay Jadhav, Sanjay Dina Patil, Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar, Omprakash Rajenimbalkar and Bhausaheb Wakchaure with the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.With the Speaker formalising the merger, the strength of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) in the Lok Sabha was reduced to just three MPs while the Shinde-led Shiv Sena now has 13 MPs, up from its original strength of seven.Shiv Sena has now become the third largest NDA constituent after BJP (239 MPs), TDP (16 MPs) and Shiv Sena (13 MPs). Shiv Sena has overtaken Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in the NDA power pie. JDU has 12 MPs.The immediate impact of the move is reflected in the Lok Sabha’s composition, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) increasing its strength to 298 in the 543-member House. Owing to three vacancies, however, the effective strength of the Lok Sabha currently stands at 540.The development came as a boost for the NDA during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, as the ruling alliance seeks to bolster support for key legislation, including potential constitutional amendment Bills.