New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Sunday issued notices to the Centre and Maharashtra governments in a petition filed by the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine against Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to swear in Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister.
A bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna also isused notices to Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta to produce letters of the governor at 10.30 am on Monday for passing orders.
The Supreme Court observed that it has taken note of all the arguments, particularly the argument that the governor’s decision on November 23 inviting the Fadnavis to form a government is unconstitutional. The court’s order, made available hours after the hearing states that the court hasn’t considered the petitioners’ prayer to “pass an appropriate writ/order/direction to the Governor to invite the alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising of the Shiv Sena, Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party which has the support of more than 144 MLAs to form the Government under the leadership of Shri. Uddhav Thackeray.” “We are not going to consider the same at present,” the order reads.
“As adjudication of the issues and also the interim prayers sought by the petitioners to conduct floor test within 24 hours has to be considered after perusing the order of the Governor as well as the letters submitted by Mr. Devendra Fadnavis – Respondent No.3., even though none appeared for the State Government, we request Mr. Tushar Mehta to produce those two letters by tomorrow morning at 10.30 a.m. when the matter will be taken up, so that appropriate order will be passed,” the order concludes.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented the alliance parties while Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the BJP’s MLAs and some independent MLAs. Solicitor general Tushar Mehta was present, but said he did not have any instructions because he was served a copy of the petition late on Saturday night.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the NCP, said that the government must be directed to prove its majority in a floor test immediately. He said after claiming majority, the BJP cannot shy away from proving it in the assembly.
Singhvi and Sibal also urged the court cited the precedent of the Supreme Court ordering a floor test in Karnataka last year.
“We are saying if they have majority, let them prove it. If they don’t, allow us to form the government,” Sibal said, according to Bar & Bench.
Sibal alleged that the governor was acting “directly under the orders of a political party”. “The act of the Governor smacks of bias, is malafide, contrary to all norms,” he said.
Singhvi, who was appearing for the NCP, said that Ajit Pawar cannot be appointed as the deputy CM because 41 of the party’s 54 MLAs have said that they do not recognise him as a leader of the party anymore.
Singhvi : 41 people signed in the afternoon saying they do not support Ajit Pawar @AjitPawarSpeaks . He did not have the support of NCP. Democracy functions on numbers and majority. It is not possible for the Governor to have exercised this function.#MaharashtraGovtFormation
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 24, 2019
Singhvi also cited the Goa and Uttarakhand cases which the Supreme Court heard, as precedents for ordering an immediate floor test.
“If floor test is ordered for tomorrow, larger issues may come back to the Supreme Court later. How is it possible for someone claiming majority yesterday to shy away from a floor test today? If floor test is ordered, it is not an invasive adversarial order at all,” he asked, according to Bar & Bench.
Former attorney general Rohatgi argued that the decisions of the governor are not amenable to judicial review, citing Article 361 of the Constitution. “For so many days they didn’t lift a little finger to form the government and now someone else has formed the government. No doubt that the floor test is inevitable, but the decision of the governor are not subject to judicial review,” he argued.
Justice Ramana said that the issue of the governor’s powers is settled. “The issue at hand is to conduct the floor test,” he said.
The court ultimately asked for the letters related to the government formation to be placed on record and said it will pass appropriate orders in the matter on Monday. Proceedings will resume at 10:30 am.
Supreme Court order on Maharashtra by The Wire on Scribd
(With PTI inputs)