In a bitter victory for Uddhav Thackeray, the Supreme Court agreed that the chain of events leading up to Eknath Shinde's swearing-in as the Chief Minister (CM) of Maharashtra did contain illegalities but refused to restore Uddhav Thackeray's government as he had resigned without facing a floor test. In a unanimous verdict by a 5-judge Constitution Bench, the top court ruled that it would've restored the MVA (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi) government had Uddhav Thackeray not resigned.

Noting that Maharashtra's Governor had no objective material to doubt the confidence of the state government and call for a floor test in the absence of a no-confidence motion against the MVA government, the bench led by CJI Justice DY Chandrachud added that the Governor rightly administered the oath of office to Eknath Shinde as Chief Minister as Shinde was backed by the single largest party in the legislative assembly the BJP.

The 5-judge bench, also comprising Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha, referred the 2016 Nabam Rebia judgement by another 5-judge Constitution bench to a larger bench for consideration.

The larger bench will now decide if disabling the Speaker's power can be misused by MLAs facing disqualification. The Nabam Rebia judgement bars a Speaker from deciding on disqualification petitions against MLAs if there's a pending motion seeking the Speaker's removal.

However, the apex court allowed the assembly Speaker to decide on the disqualification petitions against MLAs within a reasonable time, if the motion seeking the Speaker's removal isn't as per procedure.

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The court also refused to bar the Election Commission from deciding on the dispute for the Shiv Sena symbol between the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction and the Eknath Shinde-led faction.

The court held the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as the new whip of Shiv Sena by the Speaker as illegal, despite knowledge of the emergence of two factions and no indication of exiting the party or the alliance in the letter written by the Shinde-led faction.

Ruling that a floor test can't be used to resolve internal party disputes, the bench clarified that even if the MLAs wanted to exit the government, they constituted only a faction. In 2019, MLAs unanimously appointed Uddhav Thackeray as the party leader and Shinde as the leader of the legislative group. The court further noted that a whip is appointed by a political party and not a legislative party.

(Edited by : Pradeep John)

First Published:May 11, 2023 3:59 PM IST