India, July 23 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker and others on a plea filed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) challenging the Speaker's approval to the merger of its six MPs with the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, which agreed to hear the plea filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Ganpat Sawant, refused to grant interim relief as of now.

"Issue notice," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.

Ahead of the Monsoon session, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on July 18 approved the merger of six Shiv Sena (UBT) MPs with the Shiv Sena led by Shinde.

Official sources had said that with the ...