Supreme Court Reserves Order On Floor Test In Maharashtra

The Supreme Court of India has reserved its order on the joint petition by the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress which seeks an immediate floor test to be ordered for the Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party government to prove its majority.

The three parties had argued that the swearing -in of Fadnavis which was held early morning of Nov. 23 was unconstitutional and facilitated by the Governor who acted in a biased and malafide manner.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the Sena, argued that their coalition had announced the intention to form government and the name of Uddhav Thackeray was made public as their chief ministerial candidate. The swearing-in of Fadnavis was done to preempt their alliance.

“We three made a public announcement that we will form the government. What happened after that is something I have not seen before,” Sibal said in court during a hearing held on Sunday.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing the NCP, called the developments since Nov. 23 a “murder of democracy”. Singhvi claimed the support of 154 MLAs in the Sena-led alliance.

Mukul Rohatgi, who represented Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, argued that he has the support of 170 MLAs which includes the NCP as the letter of support from the party was handed by Ajit Pawar. It is on basis of this letter from Ajit Pawar and other 11 independent MLAs that we decided to approach the Governor and the Governor also invited us based on this letter.

During the course of the hearing, the parties also argued on the procedure that should be adopted. The Sena alliance argued that the trust vote should be held by a pro-tem Speaker whose responsibility is to ensure the voting takes place and then they are counted. However, the BJP-led alliance is arguing that the trust vote should be held after the election of the Speaker takes place.

The three-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramanna will pronounce its order at 10:30 am tomorrow.