The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is likely to deliver the judgement on the Maharashtra political crisis today i.e. on 11 May. Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said the bench would be delivering two judgments tomorrow. The five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and PS Narasimha was dealing with the issue related to Maharashtra political crisis.
The case pertains on a batch of pleas including one seeking disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs (of Shinde's party) who revolted against the Thackeray leadership.
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday said the current state government has the majority no matter what decision comes out, in comments coming ahead of the Supreme Court's verdict expected soon on a plea seeking the disqualification of 16 MLAs of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
The hearing of the case which went on for almost 9 days saw senior lawyers making arguments. Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi were appearing for the Uddhav camp and Harish Salve, NK Kaul, and Mahesh Jethmalani for the Shinde camp.
During the hearing, Kapil Sibal argued that the call by Maharashtra Governor to call a trust vote was illegal, and whatever happened between the two factions of Shiv Sena was outside the legislature, not inside. He further submitted that the constitution does not recognize any faction whether there is a majority or minority.
Kapil Sibal also argued that a political party has primacy in the relationship between the legislature and the political party. The Shinde camp lawyers countered this point and said that the political party and legislative party are conjoined and connected and the argument made by Uddhav Thackeray camp that the other factions represent the legislative party and not a political party is a fallacy. Senior Advocate NK Kaul further submitted that dissent is the hallmark of democracy.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta was representing the office of Maharashtra Governor and said that the fact that the rival legislators had written to the Governor about their unwillingness to continue with the then government and the Governor invited Thackeray to prove his majority.
Earlier in April, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut claimed the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government will collapse in the next 15-20 days.
After which, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asserted that elections could ‘happen at any time’ in the western state. “Elections can happen at any time, even today, we are prepared. The matter is in Supreme Court, and we are hoping that the verdict will be in our favour. After that, anything can happen at anytime," he asserted.
Earlier this year, the Election Commission recognised the Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena, and allotted the 'bow and arrow' symbol to it. The decision to allot Shiv Sena name and ‘bow and arrow’ party symbol to Eknath Shinde was taken as the Uddhav Thackeray faction MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in Maharashtra in 2019 polls, the Election Commission said.
Last year in June, Eknath Shinde and 39 MLAs had revolted against the leadership of the Shiv Sena, leading to a split in the party and the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, which was led by Uddhav Thackeray and also included the NCP and Congress.
Afterwards, Shinde formed a coalition government in Maharashtra with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On June 30, 2022, Shinde was appointed as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and Devendra Fadnavis from the BJP was appointed as his deputy.
Recently, the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on a set of cross-petitions filed by both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions regarding the political turmoil that took place in the state last year.
(With inputs from agencies)
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.