Sena-NCP-Cong File Writ Petition Before SC – Key Highlights

Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress jointly filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court over Maharashtra govt formation.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress jointly filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court on Saturday, 23 November evening, over the formation of the BJP government in Maharashtra, which returned with Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and ousted NCP leader Ajith Pawar as his deputy.

A bench of justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna will hear the plea on Sunday at 11:30 am.

The writ petition, presented under Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, highlights the following points:

• The Governor could only invite Devendra Fadnavis to form government if objective material was placed before him, which prima facie indicates that Fadnavis had more than the majority mark
• The state government formation is not possible as letters of support from sufficient number of MLAs had not been submitted

• The floor test take place within 24 hours, so that there is no scope for horse trading.
• The Governor’s decision to invite Fadnavis to form a government was "unconstitutional, arbitrary, illegal, void-ab-initio, and violative of Article 14 of Constitution of India."
• The petitioners alleged that the Governor has acted in a "partisan manner" and allowed himself to be a "pawn in the BJP's illegal usurpation of power".

On the basis these points, the writ petition pleaded that the Supreme Court override the Governor's decision and, instead, direct him to invite the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to form the government.

The writ petition also mentions the support of 162 MLAs, consisting of members from Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress and Independent MLAs.

Separate Application for Directions

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine has also filed a separate application seeking direction for summoning of a special session of the Assembly for swearing-in of MLAs and a floor test.

• The parties should be permitted to prove its strength on the floor of the House by holding of a composite floor test, they demanded.
• "In these circumstances the action of the governor in installing a minority government is ex-facie against the basic rule of law and the rule of parliamentary democracy that is rule by majority,” the petition said.
• The application seeks appropriate directions for summoning a special session of the 14th Maharashtra legislative assembly “with the only agenda of administering oath to the MLAs, immediately followed by the holding of a floor test” on 24 November 24.
• "The gross malafide, arbitrariness and illegality is writ large on the face of the impugned actions of the governor as he has proceeded to swear-in a chief minister who is well short of the majority mark of 145 in the assembly by 40 MLAs," the petition said.
• Video recording of the floor test and placing copies of the video before the court and appointing a pro-tem speaker to preside over the conduct of the floor test were also sought in the application.

(With inputs from PTI.)