Produce Ajit Pawar's and Devendra Fadnavis’s letters by 10.30am: SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Sunday asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta to bring the two letters, one by Ajit Pawar pledging NCP support to BJP and the other by Devendra Fadnavis staking claim to form government, besides the governor’s order to the court at 10.30 am on Monday for scrutiny.
The documents will be a critical part of the court’s deliberations after which it will decide on the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress joint plea for holding a composite floor test within 24 hours to offer Maharashtra’s newly-elected MLAs an opportunity to decide between BJP and opposition choices for the CM’s post.
The late Saturday evening joint petition filed by ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’, a post-poll alliance formed by the three parties after Sena severed its pre-poll alliance with BJP over the CM post, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna.
The bench did not permit arguments on the constitutionality of the governor’s decision and, instead, focused on whether any interim relief could be granted. Finding no one representing Maharashtra government, it directed Mehta to produce the letters and other documents by 10.30 am on Monday.
Governor B S Koshyari had in a surprise development sworn in Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as deputy CM on Saturday. This came about even as the Aghadi readied to approach Koshyari on behalf of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
“As adjudication of the issues and also the interim prayer sought by the petitioner to conduct floor test within 24 hours has to be considered after perusing the order of the governor as well as the letters submitted by Devendra Fadnavis, even though none appear for the state government, we request Menta to produce these two letters by tomorrow morning at 10.30 am when the matter will be taken up, so that appropriate order will be passed,” the bench said after a 40-minute hearing in a courtroom packed with lawyers and journalists.
In doing so, the bench brushed aside Mehta’s request for two days to produce the letters. The court also found arguments of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for ‘some’ BJP MLAs and two independents, entertaining when he said that in such matters, the court should issue notice and give 3-4 days time to the respondents to file their counter affidavits before taking up the matter.
“What is the tearing hurry? They did not even lift a little finger for close to a month. And now, on a Sunday, they are disturbing judges and lawyers,” he said. It evoked laughter but could not succeed in delaying adjudication by a few days which could have given crucial time to the BJP-Ajit Pawar combine to attempt swelling their apparently insufficient support.
For Shiv Sena, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the Sena-NCP-Congress held a joint press conference on November 22 at 7 pm to make public the working out of a common minimum programme and their decision to stake claim to form government.
“What happened between 7 pm of November 22 and 5 am of November 23 is shrouded in mystery and because of which the governor took a malafide, arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional decision to administer oath to Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as deputy CM. I have never seen anything like this in India,” Sibal said.
“The decision to request revocation of President’s rule in the night and administer oath to Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the morning shows the governor was acting under direct instruction of the Centre. Otherwise, such a thing could not happen,” he added.
Appearing for NCP and Congress, senior advocate A M Singhvi said the trend witnessed in Goa, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Manipur was repeated with more brazenness in Maharashtra to murder democracy, which was a game of numbers. He said 41 of the 54 NCP MLAs had written to the governor about removal of Ajit Pawar as the leader of NCP legislative party. “How could the governor act on the letter claiming support of 54 NCP MLAs?” he asked.
Pressing for a composite floor test on Sunday itself, Singhvi said, “By directing this, the SC would only be fulfilling a constitutional obligation, which the governor ignored. We do not know how many days the governor has given Fadnavis to prove majority. If Fadnavis was so confident on November 23 about majority support, he should not shy away from proving it on the floor of the House on Sunday.”
Rohatgi said it was the governor’s sole discretion to invite someone to form government after he had satisfied himself about the numbers. “The governor’s decision is immune from judicial scrutiny under Article 361 of the Constitution. Let the man invited to form government be given sufficient time to prove majority on the floor of the House. What is the tearing hurry?” he asked.
In Video:SC issues notice to Centre, Maha govt, hearing to continue tomorrow[1][2][3][4][5][6]
from Times of India https://ift.tt/37B3TmS
The documents will be a critical part of the court’s deliberations after which it will decide on the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress joint plea for holding a composite floor test within 24 hours to offer Maharashtra’s newly-elected MLAs an opportunity to decide between BJP and opposition choices for the CM’s post.
The late Saturday evening joint petition filed by ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’, a post-poll alliance formed by the three parties after Sena severed its pre-poll alliance with BJP over the CM post, came up for hearing before a bench of Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna.
The bench did not permit arguments on the constitutionality of the governor’s decision and, instead, focused on whether any interim relief could be granted. Finding no one representing Maharashtra government, it directed Mehta to produce the letters and other documents by 10.30 am on Monday.
Governor B S Koshyari had in a surprise development sworn in Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as deputy CM on Saturday. This came about even as the Aghadi readied to approach Koshyari on behalf of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
“As adjudication of the issues and also the interim prayer sought by the petitioner to conduct floor test within 24 hours has to be considered after perusing the order of the governor as well as the letters submitted by Devendra Fadnavis, even though none appear for the state government, we request Menta to produce these two letters by tomorrow morning at 10.30 am when the matter will be taken up, so that appropriate order will be passed,” the bench said after a 40-minute hearing in a courtroom packed with lawyers and journalists.
In doing so, the bench brushed aside Mehta’s request for two days to produce the letters. The court also found arguments of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for ‘some’ BJP MLAs and two independents, entertaining when he said that in such matters, the court should issue notice and give 3-4 days time to the respondents to file their counter affidavits before taking up the matter.
“What is the tearing hurry? They did not even lift a little finger for close to a month. And now, on a Sunday, they are disturbing judges and lawyers,” he said. It evoked laughter but could not succeed in delaying adjudication by a few days which could have given crucial time to the BJP-Ajit Pawar combine to attempt swelling their apparently insufficient support.
For Shiv Sena, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the Sena-NCP-Congress held a joint press conference on November 22 at 7 pm to make public the working out of a common minimum programme and their decision to stake claim to form government.
“What happened between 7 pm of November 22 and 5 am of November 23 is shrouded in mystery and because of which the governor took a malafide, arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional decision to administer oath to Fadnavis as CM and Ajit Pawar as deputy CM. I have never seen anything like this in India,” Sibal said.
“The decision to request revocation of President’s rule in the night and administer oath to Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the morning shows the governor was acting under direct instruction of the Centre. Otherwise, such a thing could not happen,” he added.
Appearing for NCP and Congress, senior advocate A M Singhvi said the trend witnessed in Goa, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Manipur was repeated with more brazenness in Maharashtra to murder democracy, which was a game of numbers. He said 41 of the 54 NCP MLAs had written to the governor about removal of Ajit Pawar as the leader of NCP legislative party. “How could the governor act on the letter claiming support of 54 NCP MLAs?” he asked.
Pressing for a composite floor test on Sunday itself, Singhvi said, “By directing this, the SC would only be fulfilling a constitutional obligation, which the governor ignored. We do not know how many days the governor has given Fadnavis to prove majority. If Fadnavis was so confident on November 23 about majority support, he should not shy away from proving it on the floor of the House on Sunday.”
Rohatgi said it was the governor’s sole discretion to invite someone to form government after he had satisfied himself about the numbers. “The governor’s decision is immune from judicial scrutiny under Article 361 of the Constitution. Let the man invited to form government be given sufficient time to prove majority on the floor of the House. What is the tearing hurry?” he asked.
In Video:SC issues notice to Centre, Maha govt, hearing to continue tomorrow[1][2][3][4][5][6]
References
- ^ Devendra Fadnavis (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
- ^ Maharashtra (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
- ^ Governor (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
- ^ Mukul Rohatgi (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
- ^ Shiv Sena (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
- ^ SC issues notice to Centre, Maha govt, hearing to continue tomorrow (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
from Times of India https://ift.tt/37B3TmS
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