Maharashtra political crisis: Shinde Sena appointing whip was ’illegal’, says SC

Maharashtra Political Crisis: The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on 11 May said that the Speaker's decision to appoint Gogawale (Shinde group) as chief Whip of the Shiv Sena party was illegal.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Eknath Shinde faction, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud held that House speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal".

Also Read: Maharashtra Political Crisis LIVE

SC in its verdict refused to order status quo ante, saying Uddhav Thackeray did not face the floor test and resigned.

Also Read: Uddhav Thackeray vs Eknath Shinde: A look at what we know so far on Maharashtra political crisis

Furthermore, SC added, since Thackeray had resigned without facing the floor test, the governor was justified in inviting Shinde to form government at the behest of the BJP which was the largest political party in the house.

The Supreme Court on Thursday referred its 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case to a larger bench.

While pronouncing the judgement, SC also refered to the 2016 Nabam Rebia five-judge verdict related to power of speaker on disqualification of MLAs to larger bench of seven judges

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.

Earlier on Wednesday, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar 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. 

Ahead of the Supreme Court verdict on the Maharashtra political crisis tomorrow, Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that the judgement will decide whether "Democracy is alive or not" in the country. 

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.