On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India held that it cannot order the restoration of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra as former CM Uddhav Thackeray had resigned without facing a floor test. The Court also said that the then Governor was right in inviting Eknath Shinde-led coalition to form the state government as former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray had already resigned.
“Petitioners argued for restoration of status quo ante. However, Thackeray did not face the floor test. Had Uddhav Thackeray not resigned, the status quo could have been restored,” the Court said.
The Court meanwhile also noted that the then Governor’s decision for the floor test was wrong and the speaker was wrong in appointing a whip of the Eknath Shinde group. The court noted that there was no objective material to doubt the majority of the govt to call for a floor test as nobody had filed any no-confidence motion against the govt. The Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said that dissidence in Shiv Sena didn’t warrant a floor test unless there was a no-confidence motion. The court also said that Devendra Fadnais and 7 MLAs could have moved a no-confidence motion, but they didn’t do it.
Referring to former Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, the Court said, “Governor ought not to have relied on the letter. The letter did not indicate that Uddhav Thackeray lost support. Exercise of discretion by the Governor was not in accordance with the Constitution.”
CJI : Whip appointed political party is crucial for tenth schedule. #ShivSena #MaharashtraPoliticalCrisis #SupremeCourt #UddhavThackeray #EknathShinde
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 11, 2023
“Nothing in any of the communications relied on by the Governor indicated that the dissatisfied MLAs wanted to withdraw support to the government. Neither the Constitution nor the law empower the governor to enter the political arena and play a role either in inter-party or intra-party disputes,” it added further stating that floor test cannot be used to resolve internal party disputes.
The bench also ruled that the decision of the speaker to appoint Bharatshet Gogawale as the whip of Shiv Sena was illegal, as the speaker didn’t identify who was the authorised whip of the party, Sunil Prabhu or Gogawale. The court said that the argument that only the legislative party can appoint the whip is wrong as it will relink the legislative party from the political party.
The constitution bench further ruled that the Election Commission can’t be stopped from deciding the symbols of the two factions of the Shiv Sena. In a significant comment, the court said that after a split, not faction can claim to be the original party. “No faction or a group can argue that they constitute the original party in defence of the disqualification proceedings. The defence of split is no longer available under the tenth schedule,” the court said.
The Supreme Court decided to refer the “Nabam Rebia” decision to a larger bench. This will decide whether a speaker can disqualify MLAs after a notice for removal of the speaker has been moved. However, the court noted that this will not have an impact on the current issue.
The constitution bench delivered verdicts on a number of petitions, including one filed by Shiv Sena UBT head Uddhav Thackeray to disqualify 16 MLAs from the Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde, including Maharashtra head Minister Eknath Shinde, who rebelled against him.
The Shinde faction meanwhile happened to welcome the decision given by the Supreme Court saying that now the state can have a stable government. “This is a big relief to the Shinde government in Maharashtra. Now the State will get a stable government. We welcome Supreme Court’s decision,” said Rahul Ramesh Shewale of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) on May 11.
This is a big relief to the Shinde government in Maharashtra. Now the State will get a stable government. We welcome Supreme Court's decision: Rahul Ramesh Shewale, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) pic.twitter.com/lqh1uiTBwA
— ANI (@ANI) May 11, 2023
Following the Shiv Sena party conflict, members from both sides had filed petitions on a range of issues, including the legality of the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s order to Uddhav Thackeray to undergo a floor test. Eknath Shinde had filed a further petition with the Supreme Court in relation to the notifications that the then Deputy Speaker had issued about the alleged defection under the tenth schedule of the Constitution against the rebel MLAs associated with his faction.
Notably, the Election Commission in February this year designated the Shinde group as the “real Shiv Sena”, some eight months after the insurrection took place, in light of the ongoing divide that began in June 2022.
In its final ruling, the EC declared the Shiv Sena party’s present constitution to be undemocratic and ordered that the Shinde group, which lost contact with the rest of the party in June 2022, get the official name of Shiv Sena and the emblem. “It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence.”
In a statement explaining its decision, the polling organisation stated that it had done a “test on majority” since the group of MLAs from the Shinde group received roughly 76% of the votes cast for the 55 Shiv Sena candidates who won the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly Elections. Furthermore, it stated that just 23.5% of the vote went to the Uddhav Thackeray side.
The battle for the ‘real’ Shiv Sena
The saga first began in June last year when the BJP won five out of the ten seats up for election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. As a result of the Shiv Sena’s surprise at the BJP’s triumph, there are now splits inside the MVA administration. Days later, Eknath Shinde, a senior Shiv Sena figure and dissident MLA, departed with 11 other MLAs and departed for Surat in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat. On the same day, Uddhav held a meeting where about 10 to 12 other MLAs were absent and unable to attend. In order to prevent their loss, Shiv Sena quickly booked rooms for the remaining MLAs at several Mumbai hotels. Uddhav was informed by Shinde that he had the backing of more than 40 MLAs, and he was pushed to sever the partnership.
The opposing side then crowned Eknath Shinde as head of the Shiv Sena legislative party. Shinde then travelled to the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Assam, and even Goa with 40 Sena MLAs in tow before claiming the backing of the saffron party to establish the Maharashtra government. On the other side, Thackeray was only able to get the backing of 15 MLAs.
Shiv Sena filed a plea, and Narahari Zirwal, the deputy speaker of the Maharashtra legislature, issued a disqualification notice to 16 dissident lawmakers. On that day, Uddhav relocated from his official home in south Mumbai, Varsha, to Matoshree, the Thackeray family’s private villa in the Bandra neighbourhood.
The deputy speaker sent a disqualification notice to the rebel leader Eknath Shinde and his MLAs after they filed to the Supreme Court to dispute the denial of the no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker. Uddhav fired Shinde from his position as “Shiv Sena leader” in the midst of the escalating internal conflict.
It was predicted that Shinde and the dissident MLAs will lend their allegiance to the saffron party after receiving backing from the BJP. To everyone’s amazement however on June 30, Shinde was sworn in as the state’s chief minister while Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP was sworn in as the deputy chief minister. Thackeray resigned from his position after the Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s order for the MVA administration to conduct a floor test in the Assembly.
Rahul Narvekar of the BJP was chosen as Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly at a special two-day session of the oganized at the Assembly after the formation of the new governement. The new Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde won the crucial floor test in the state Assembly with 164 votes polled in favour of him, and 99 against.
On October 8, the poll Commission issued a provisional order suspending the Shiv Sena’s ‘bow and arrow’ poll emblem ahead of the November 3 Andheri (East) Assembly byelection. The flaming torch (mashal) and the moniker ‘Shiv Sena — Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ were awarded to the Thackeray group by the EC. The name ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ and a shield with two swords were given to Shinde’s organisation.
Later in December, the Delhi High Court reserved its order on an appeal by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray challenging a single judge’s decision dismissing his plea against an Election Commission interim order freezing the Shiv Sena name and election symbol. According to Thackeray, the sole judge’s ruling from November 15, by which it also instructed the EC to speed up the proceedings, was erroneous and subject to being overturned.
In February this year, the ECI stated that the Eknath Shinde group must continue using the party name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the party emblem ‘Bow and Arrow.’ Also, the Shiv Sena party’s legislative office at Vidhan Bhavan was turned over to the group of CM Eknath Shinde. The office was reported to be sealed after the beginning of the conflict in the Shiv Sena.
