A social worker has filed a petition in Bombay High court seeking directions for Maharashtra Governor to act upon the proposal of the State Cabinet to appoint Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray as a Member of the Legislative council.
A petition has been filed in Bombay High Court seeking directions for Governor of Maharashtra to act upon the proposal of State cabinet to appoint Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray as Member of the State Legislative Council (MLC). #Maharashtra
— ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2020
The petition was filed by the social worker Surinder Arora through his advocate S B Talekar. The plea claimed, “The BJP as part of its political game plan is trying to make Uddhav Thackeray step down from the post of chief minister with the help of Maharashtra governor (B S Koshyari). However, today is not the time to play politics when the state has to fight the battle against coronavirus.”
Arora’s plea seeking to direct the governor to take a decision on the proposal submitted by the cabinet expeditiously or within three days. The plea will be heard on May 5. The petition said, “In India, the Election Commission of India has postponed all elections across the states. Owing to this, the chief minister of Maharashtra, who is a non-legislator, will not be in a position to become a member of the Legislature within a period of six months from the date of his appointment.”
The petition mentioned that the government of Maharashtra will be destabilized due to non-availability of Chief minister which can be a disaster in approaching days.
The plea said that the governor is yet to make a decision on the recommendation made by the council of ministers despite the lapse of 20 days. The petitioner is a citizen of India and a valid voter is seeking a direction to the governor to decide upon the recommendation as expeditiously as possible so as to avoid a situation of a destabilized government in such crucial times.
Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 28 November 2019. In accordance with Article 164 (4) of the constitution, he has to become a member of one of the two houses of the legislature within six months i.e. on or up to 27th May 2020, else he will have to step down as a Chief minister. The Maharashtra government has nominated him to one vacant seat in the Legislative Council, but the governor is yet to approve the nomination.
