Mumbai: Undeterred by the loss of power to the rebel MLAs and estranged ally BJP, Shiv Sena on Friday moved the Supreme Court with a plea to quash Governor BS Koshyari’s decision on June 30 to invite Eknath Shinde to take oath as the Chief Minister and form the government. Further, the Shiv Sena has prayed that the illegal proceedings of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly held on July 3 and consequently the election of the Speaker should be quashed.
The party general secretary Subhash Desai in a petition submitted that the action of the Governor in calling Shinde to be the Chief Minister is completely arbitrary and unconstitutional. ’The Governor in his ipse dixit guided by his political masters acted malafide and in the teeth of the provisions of the Constitution granted de-facto recognition to the faction of 39 MLAs by inviting Shinde to be the Chief Minister,’’ he said. ‘’Governor cannot seek to give recognition to factions of political parties as that would lead to a death knell to working of a multi-party democracy,’’ he added.
‘’Shiv Sena is a regional political party recognized by the Election Commission. Its office bearers have also been recognized by the Election Commission. There is no change to the organizational structure of the Shiv Sena and the leadership of Shri Uddhav Thackrey is undisputed and unchallenged.’’ "Under which capacity the Governor recognized the strength of 39 rebel MLAs headed by Shinde for the purposes of inviting him to be the Chief Minister?”he asked.
Shiv Sena has further submitted, ‘’There is no merger as envisaged under para 4 of the Tenth Schedule. These rebel MLAs have not merged in any other political party or formed a new political party, therefore even if it is assumed they formed 2/3rd strength of the Legislature party, para 4 of the Tenth Schedule is not at all attracted.’’
‘’The very act of Shinde of approaching the Governor to stake a claim on June 30 and thereafter of forming a government with the erstwhile opposition party and facilitating the removal of the Chief Minister of the Shiv Sena, is itself an act of voluntarily leaving the original political party-Shiv Sena, which is directly hit by Paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule,’’ it said.
According to Shiv Sena, the discretion vested by the Constitution in the Governor for the purposes of Government formation or inviting a person as Chief Minister is not an untrammelled discretion it has to be exercised based on relevant material. The relevant material cannot take into account illegally cobbled up numbers which are not sanctioned by the Constitution.
Moreover, Shiv Sena submitted that the Speaker illegally and unconstitutionally elected, on the day prior to the Confidence Motion moved by Shinde, illegally recognised him as the leader of the Shiv Sena and Bharat Gogawale (against whom disqualification petition is pending) as the Whip of the Shiv Sena. This is contrary to the directive of the Shiv Sena leadership, which is undisputedly under Uddhav Thackeray.
‘’The recognition of the rebel faction of the Shiv Sena by the Speaker is in complete disregard of the fact that the Shiv Sena which is undisputedly headed by Shri. Uddhav Thackeray has unequivocally directed that Ajay Chaudhary will be the leader of the Shiv Sena Legislative Party and Sunil Prabhu will be the Whip of the Shiv Sena. These acts of the Speaker are in complete disregard of independence of the Speaker, and smack of bias and illegality. The acts of the Speaker, which are within the realm of the political thicket, are completely contrary to the principles enshrined in the constitution, and wholly defeat the purpose of the Tenth Schedule,’’ said Shiv Sena in a petition.
‘’It is relevant to note that from the actions of the Speaker Rahul Narvekar, it is clear that he is neither unbiased nor without prejudice towards the Shiv Sena, cannot be called upon to decide the disqualification petitions which are pending, without breaching the rule of law and the rule against arbitrariness enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution,’’ it noted.
Former minister Anil Parab said there is an urgent need for this Hon’ble Court to decide the issue of disqualification.
