Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) party leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday reacted to Supreme Court's verdict refusing to give relief to former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray as it observed that he did not face a Floor test in the Maharashtra assembly. He called the Eknath Shinde led-Maharashtra government "gaddar (traitor)". Aaditya Thackeray took to Twitter and said, "Unconstitutional. Illegal. Immoral. That is the only way to look at mindhe- bjp gaddar sarkar, especially after today’s verdict."
Thackeray attacked Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and said that if there is any morality and shame left then Shinde should resign from CM's post. He also said that the greed for power is evident. "The role and assistance of the earlier governor in the hostile take over of government, and suppressing democracy and the constitution is evident. He acted as a Party man, not as a Governor. If there’s any morality and shame left, the unconstitutional cm should resign. Their greed for power is evident, but morality and democracy must be supreme," Aaditya Thackeray said in another tweet.
The apex court pronounced a verdict on a batch of petitions related to the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis that saw Eknath Shinde taking over as Chief Minister from Uddhav Thackeray following a split in the Shiv Sena. It criticised the Maharashtra Speaker's decision to appoint Gogawale (Shinde group) as chief Whip of the Shiv Sena party as illegal. It referred the 2016 Nabam Rebia five-judge verdict related to the power of speaker on disqualification of MLAs to a larger bench The top court, news agency PTI reported.
Supreme Court said that the 2016 Nabam Rebia case which held that Speaker cannot initiate disqualification proceedings when a resolution seeking his removal is pending, requires reference to a larger bench. The top court said that issues such as whether a notice to the removal of the Speaker will restrict the powers of the Speaker to issue disqualification notices need examination by a larger bench.
CJI DY Chandrachud said that it will not be right for democracy to separate the whip from the party as it is the party that seeks votes from the public and MLA alone cannot decide who will be the whip. Uddhav Thackeray was chosen as the leader in the meeting of party legislators. On July 3, the Speaker approved the new whip of the Shiv Sena. Thus, there are two leaders and two whips, he mentioned.
Supreme Court said that the state assembly Speaker should recognise only the whip appointed by the political party. It further stated that the Governor had no objective material to call for a Floor test in the Assembly, it cannot be used as a medium to resolve inter or intra-party disputes.
According to the SC bench, the Governor erred in relying on the resolution of a faction of MLAs of Shiv Sena to conclude that Uddhav Thackeray had lost the support of the majority of MLAs. "Governor had no objective material to doubt the confidence of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government and call for a Floor test. The resolution relied on by the government did not indicate that MLAs wanted to withdraw support. Even if it is assumed that the MLAs wanted to exit the government, they constituted only a faction," the Supreme Court stated.
However, the top court said that status quo ante cannot be ordered by restoring MVA government as then CM Uddhav Thackeray did not face the floor test and tendered resignation. Hence, the Governor was justified in administering the oath to Eknath Shinde with the support of the largest party BJP.
Supreme Court asked the Speaker to decide on disqualification petitions within a reasonable time. A five-judge bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P S Narasimha had reserved its verdict in the matter on March 16 after hearing the matter for eight days.
Last year, Shinde and 39 MLAs rebelled against the undivided Sena party leadership, which eventually resulted in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the party's split. Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the deputy CM.
On February 17 this year, the Election Commission (EC) recognised the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena based on the majority in the Maharashtra Assembly. The Shinde faction has 40 MLAs in the Assembly as against the Thackeray faction's 15.