Uddhav Thackeray seeks restoration of MVA government in Maharashtra

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 16

The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Thursday demanded restoration of its government in Maharashtra even as the Supreme Court wondered how it could reinstate a Chief Minister who did not even face a floor test.

You skipped floor test, How can we do it?

How can the court reinstate the Chief Minister who did not even face the floor test? That’s like the court being told you reinstate a government which has resigned. Supreme Court Bench

A day after the Supreme Court raised questions on the role of the then Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari during the 2022 political crisis that forced the MVA government led by Thackeray to resign, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and AM Singhvi, representing the Thackeray faction, said status quo ante should be restored to correct the wrong committed by the then Governor.

“What’s the point of now saying that these consequential acts have happened so you have no judicial remedy, even if the act is illegal? That’s how Arunachal was decided. When it was decided, status quo ante was restored. It also happened in Uttarakhand when this court restored the CM by setting aside the Governor’s order…When Bommai was decided, what did Bommai say? It said we have restored the status quo ante. Shivraj Singh Chouhan (case) also said this,” Sibal told a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud.

“How can the court reinstate the CM who did not even face the floor test? ... That’s like the court being told you reinstate a government which has resigned,” said the Bench.

“That’s a red herring… The illegal act of the Governor is a prior pending sub judice challenge before the trust vote… My resignation is irrelevant…The consequence of an illegal origin cannot validate the illegal origin,” Singhvi replied.

His response came after the CJI said the question was if there was a valid exercise of power by the Governor to call for a trust vote and sought to know “what happens if we say there was no valid exercise of power?”

The Bench, which also included Justice MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha, reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from several senior advocates representing Uddhav and Eknath factions of the Shiv Sena and the office of the Governor.

Senior advocates Sibal, Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat argued the Thackeray faction while senior advocates Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Harish Salve and Mahesh Jethmalani represented Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena. The Governor’s office was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The Supreme Court had, on Wednesday, posed probing questions on the role of then Governor Koshyari during the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis that led to the fall of the MVA government led by Thackeray and sought to know the material on the basis of which he called for a trust vote.

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