The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on the plea filed by the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena against the Maharashtra Governor’s decision to appoint Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
The three-judge bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna will pronounce the order at 10.30 am on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court stated that in the past, the precedent has been that floor tests have been ordered in 24 hours in most cases where such contentious situation had arisen. The court added that it is not considering the prayer of Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance that they be invited to form the government in Maharashtra.
While the counsels for the alliance parties called for an immediate floor test, the counsels for the BJP and the Governor’s office sought some more time.
What happened in court:
Kapil Sibal was the counsel for Shiv Sena and Abhishek Manu Singhvi was in court representing Congress-NCP, while senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Devendra Fadnavis and senior advocate Maninder Singh represented Ajit Pawar.
Appearing for the Secretary of the Governor, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted to the court the letters given by NCP’s Ajit Pawar and independent MLAs to the Governor. The letter by Ajit Pawar has 54 signatures, Mehta told the court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that he has a copy of the Governor’s decision and that the Governor had invited all three parties, the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Congress to form the government and only after all three failed, President’s Rule was imposed.
“After Ajit Pawar's letter dated 22nd Nov, Devendra Fadnavis staked claim along with letters of support of 11 Independent and other MLAs. The Governor then wrote to the President, requesting for the revocation of the President's Rule,” the SG told the apex court.
The SG then read out the Governor’s letter, dated November 23, in court, which stated that the Fadnavis-Pawar government had the support of 170 MLAs in Maharashtra.
“Maharashtra Governor is not supposed to conduct a roving and fishing enquiry to ascertain which party has the numbers to form the government,” the SG told the court.
Appearing for Devendra Fadnavis, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi stated that the present case is different from 2018 Karnataka case. “Here, the Governor had materials before him showing majority. Nobody is saying that the signatures are forged. Governor gave chance to all parties. He exercised his discretion fairly. The Governor acted in judicial discretion and he is immune from judicial review,” Rohatgi told the court. He also sought for more time for the floor test, stating that the court cannot direct the Governor to hold a floor test within 24 hours and cannot interfere with the discretion of the Governor.
Appearing for the Shiv Sena, Kapil Sibal told the court that the Governor waited for a month for government formation but could not wait even till the morning after the alliance had announced that it had reached a consensus.
“At 7 pm on November 22, we held a presser that we had majority and Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister. When the Governor had waited for so many days, what was the emergency that required revocation of President's Rule at 5.47 in the morning and installing a government at 8 am?” Sibal asked.
Appearing for the NCP-Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked that the court direct that a floor test be held on Monday or Tuesday.
“This is a murder of democracy,” Singhvi said. “It is for the purpose to preserve the purity of democracy that every order passed by the Supreme Court in the past has held that floor test to be held within 24 hours.