The Supreme Court held that though the then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari did not act in accordance with the law by calling for a floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly in June 2022, it would not be able to reinstate the Uddhav Thackeray government, as he resigned without facing the test. The court also added that the Speaker must decide on disqualification petitions of 16 MLAs within a reasonable time.
What did the Supreme Court say?
The appointment of Bharat Gogawle as Whip is unconscionable, no attempt was made to know who the official whip is, the Supreme Court’s observations on Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar to save us from disqualification cannot be defended that we are the real party. The Governor had no reason to doubt the government. There was no need to call for a majority test. Majority test should not be used to settle intra-party disputes. If Uddhav Thackeray had not resigned, we would have decided to reinstate him as Chief Minister.
What in Thackeray’s favor – Demand for reference of case 7 to Judge’s Bench allowed, Appointment of Gogavle is illegal, Split group cannot claim original party to defend.
The importance of this case will remain as a decisive case in the political history of Maharashtra. In June 2022, the case came to the Supreme Court. The hearing was started from 27 September 2022. But the hearing was postponed several times. A marathon hearing followed from February 14 to March 16 in the legal battle for power. Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Devdutt Kamat on behalf of the Thackeray group and Harish Salve, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Mahesh Jethmalani, Maninder Singh on behalf of the Shinde group and Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Governor argued. During the hearing in this case, various constitutional issues arose about the position of the Governor. Today, the Constitutional Court has given its verdict.
