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Supreme Court to hear petition by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on July 11
The Supreme Court bench agreed to list the petition before the appropriate bench that is scheduled to hear petitions on the issue of the trust vote, appointment of the chief whip in the Assembly by the newly-elected Speaker, and disqualification pleas pending against 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs.
A fresh petition filed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction opposing the Maharashtra governor’s June 30 decision to invite rebel Sena MLAs supported by the BJP to form a government in the state will be heard in the Surpeme Court on July 11.
Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn-in as chief minister of Maharashtra on June 30, while former CM and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis became the deputy chief minister.
Friday‘s petition was mentioned by senior advocate Devadutt Kamat before a vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari on Friday to get the matter listed along with similar batch of cases coming up on Monday.
The bench agreed to list the petition before the appropriate bench that is scheduled to hear petitions on the issue of the trust vote, appointment of the chief whip in the Assembly by the newly-elected Speaker, and disqualification pleas pending against 16 rebel Sena MLAs.
In its Friday petition, filed through party general secretary Subhash Desai, the Thackeray camp said the decision of the governor to call upon Eknath Shinde to be chief minister of the new coalition and head of the 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs is “ex-facie unconstitutional” as the rebel MLAs have not merged with the BJP, making them liable to be disqualified under the Tenth Schedule.
“The action of the Governor dated June 30 in calling Eknath Shinde (Respondent No. 4) to be the Chief Minister is completely arbitrary and unconstitutional,” said the petition, filed through advocates Rajesh Inamdar and Anish R Shah. The petition also questioned the validity of proceedings in the Assembly conducted on July 3 and 4 by which the new speaker, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar, was elected and the rebel Sena MLAs-BJP coalition proved their majority on the floor of the House.
It questioned how the governor recognised the 39 rebel Sena MLAs led by Shinde to form the government.
“The Governor has sought to recognise what the Constitution prohibits,” the petition said, explaining that the Tenth Schedule prohibits recognition of rebel MLAs of a political party.
“The action of the Governor legitimises what is expressly prohibited by the Constitution,” the petition stated. Moreover, it said Shinde faced disqualification proceedings and could not be called to become CM.
“The entire basis of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution to prevent defections and horse-trading are being rendered otiose as the defectors are being rewarded for committing the constitutional sin of defection,” the petition said.
On who is the real Shiv Sena, the Thackeray camp argued that the Governor is not empowered under law to recognise “Who is the Shiv Sena” as that lies within the domain of the Election Commission, which has recognised Uddhav Thackeray as its president.
“The Governor in his ipse dixit guided by his political masters acted malafide and in the teeth of the provisions of the Constitution granted de-facto recognition to the 39 rebel MLAs by inviting Shinde (respondent 4) to be the Chief Minister.”
Citing what the rebel MLAs said in their petitions challenging disqualification action before the SC, the Thackeray camp mentioned a specific averment of “withdrawal of support to the Government headed by Uddhav Thackeray” that in itself was a direct act of voluntarily leaving the political party, the petition added.
The petition has also requested the top court to transfer the pending disqualification pleas against the rebel MLAs and decide it in the Supreme Court using its extraordinary powers under Article 142.
The Thackeray camp had earlier approached the apex court through its chief whip Sunil Prabhu on Monday challenging the Speaker’s decision to appoint MLA Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde camp as the chief whip of the Shiv Sena in the House. A letter issued by Speaker Narwekar has recognised Shinde as the Shiv Sena’s legislative party leader in the Assembly. The vacation bench directed this petition also to come up on July 11.
Last week, Prabhu moved yet another petition in the top court seeking suspension of 16 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification pleas are pending. On June 27, the top court had allowed the rebel MLAs time till July 12 to reply to the disqualification notices sent to them. On June 29, the governor ordered a floor test, following which, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government approached the top court to defer the trust vote pending disqualification proceedings.
However, the same day, in a late evening hearing, the bench allowed the trust vote to proceed stating that the same will be subject to the outcome of the petition pending before it.
Shinde was sworn in on June 30 as the new chief minister of Maharashtra.
