Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a bid to block Uddhav Thackeray in getting nominated to the state legislative council and continuing his CM term got no respite from the High Court on Monday.
The HC, however, refused to grant any relief to the saffron party, which challenged the validity of the recommendation to the Governor to nominate Thackeray as a MLC.
A bench of Justice Shahrukh Kathawalla refused to grant any relief to BJP's Ramakrishna Pillay who questioned the validity of the state cabinet decision on April 9.
The state cabinet under the chairmanship of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, had made a recommendation to the Governor to nominate Thackeray to one of the vacant seats in the state's Legislative Council.
Notably, Thackeray although a CM by consensus, is not a member of the state assembly or the council. The constitution permits one to become a CM in such a manner provided the person gets elected to the either houses in the state assembly within 6 months.
As per the procedure, Thackeray needed to be elected or nominated as the member of the legislative assembly (MLA) or the council (MLC) before May 28
However, owing to the Coronavirus lockdown, elections to the state council seemed impossible, the cabinet had said in its recommendation.
However, Pillay in his plea claimed that since the meeting was not chaired by the CM but his deputy, the recommendations were illegal.
Trashing the claim, Justice Kathawalla said, "What the council of ministers have done here is giving aid and advice of appointing Thackeray as member of the Legislative Council as per the provisions of the Constitution of India. They have thus made a recommendation to the Governor to use the power conferred upon him by the Constitution."
The judge noted that Governor Koshyari is yet to take a call on the recommendation. "The Governor whilst considering the recommendation is expected to consider whether it is
valid in law. In my view, the court's interference at this stage is not at all required. It will amount to preventing the Governor from taking an independent decision. The reliefs sought appear to be premature," opined Justice Kathawalla.
