The NCP, the Shiv Sena and the Congress on Saturday jointly approached the Supreme Court with an urgent plea to quash the Maharashtra governor’s decision to install a BJP-led government headed by Devendra Fadnavis in the state and seeking an immediate floor test.
A three-judge bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna will hear the petition on Sunday at 11.30am.
The three parties described the decision as “unconstitutional, arbitrary, illegal and void ab initio (unconstitutional from the very outset)”.
The parties sought an “immediate floor test within 24 hours so as to avoid further horse-trading and illegal manoeuvres to somehow cobble up a majority….”
A battery of lawyers representing the three parties rushed to the Supreme Court and also to the residence of the Chief Justice of India, seeking a hearing on the petition on Saturday itself or on Sunday.
A PTI report said Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde offered prayers at the Lord Venkateswara shrine in Tirupati on Saturday. After an overnight stay, the CJI would again visit the shrine on Sunday morning, PTI quoted an official as saying.
In New Delhi, the NCP, Sena and the Congress described the Fadnavis dispensation as a “minority government”.
The three parties’ petition, filed through advocate Sunil Fernandez, accused the governor of being a “pawn in BJP’s illegal usurpation of power”.
The petition said: “Facing the prospect of a non-BJP government staking claim to power, the BJP in the intervening night of 22.11.2019 and 23.11.2019 has resorted to political machinations in an attempt to install a completely unconstitutional BJP government in the state.
“From the reports available in public, the governor’s original travel plan to the governors conclave in the night of 22.11.2019 was cancelled. There is nothing in the public domain as to how and in what manner Shri Devendra Fadnavis and/or the BJP had staked claim to power between the intervening night of 22.11.2019 and 23.11.2019.”
The petition said there was no material in the public domain to show that Fadnavis had “carried letters of support of 144 MLAs (which in any event was not legally possible to do)”.
The petitioners asserted that all the MLAs of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, except Ajit Pawar, “are completely and solidly with the alliance”.
“The hon’ble governor was duty bound to study the claim, if any, made by Fadnavis, more so when admittedly the previous night all the three political parties commanding a strength of 154 MLAs had categorically stated that they will be staking claim to form the government,” the petition said.
“It is submitted that the hon’ble governor has acted in a partisan manner and has made a mockery of the high office of the governor. It is respectfully submitted that the governor’s actions between the intervening night of 22.11.2019 and 23.11.2019 culminating (in) the swearing-in on 23.11.2019 are a textbook example of the governor acting at the behest of a political party in power at the Centre,” the petition added.
