New Delhi: The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict in a batch of petitions concerning the Maharashtra political crisis on Thursday.
The crises ended in Eknath Shinde taking over as Chief Minister from Uddhav Thackeray following a split in the Shiv Sena.
A five-judge Constitution Bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and P S Narasimha had heard the case.
The issues on which arguments were advanced in the course of the hearings included:
Validity of the decision of former Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to ask former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to face a floor test.
Validity of Governor’s decision to ask rebel faction leader Eknath Shinde to take oath as Chief Minister.
Power of the Speaker to act under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and whether he could be incapacitated from acting under anti-defection law if a notice seeking his removal from the office is pending.
Which faction of a political party can claim to be the real political party in case of a split within the MLAs (legislative wing) of the political party.
Whether 2016 Supreme Court judgment by a five-judge Constitution Bench in the Nabam Rebia case (relating to the 2016 political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh) which had ruled that a Speaker stands disabled to act under the Tenth Schedule to curb defection, requires to be revisited and referred to a seven-judge bench.
While concluding the hearing, the Court had raised the question as to whether it could reinstate a Chief Minister who had resigned without facing the floor test. The Bench continued its line of questioning with regard to the powers of the Governor to call a floor test, observing,
“What happens if we come to the conclusion and say that exercise of power by the Governor was not correct? Does Uddhav Thackeray become CM? But he resigned no? It is like the Court being told to reinstate a government which has resigned.”
While seeking restoration of status quo ante, the Thackeray faction told the Court that anything flowing from an illegal act has to go and cannot survive.
On February 17 this year, the Election Commission (EC) had recognised the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena based on the majority in the Maharashtra Assembly. The Shinde faction has 40 MLAs in the Assembly as against the Thackeray faction’s 15.
