Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said that those "trying to put pressure" on the state assembly speaker are "against free and fair process". This remark came after former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said the relief to the present Eknath Shinde government was interim and that the Speaker has to decide on the matter of the disqualification of 16 rebel MLAs soon and if he took any wrong decision, he would again approach the court.
"Supreme Court has given all the rights to the speaker and reasonable time has also been given and still, if somebody is trying to put pressure on the speaker then that person is against free and fair process. Speaker himself is a good lawyer and he will take a decision as per the law," Fadnavis said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
This comes after the Supreme Court in a major verdict on Thursday allowed the Shinde Government to continue even as it said the Governor 'erred' but said it could not reinstate Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing a floor test.
On Friday, Uddhav Thackeray said, "The relief to this present government is interim. The Speaker should decide on the matter at the earliest. If he gives any wrong decision, we will again go to Court." "Court has clearly said that the Shinde-BJP government is illegal. Now as the court judgement has come, we will go to the people's court. Court has said everything about the illegality of the present government," he added.
The Maharashtra Speaker has to give a decision on petitions seeking the disqualification of MLAs in a time-bound manner, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who argued for Uddhav Thackeray's side in the Supreme Court in Maharashtra political crisis case, said on Thursday after the apex court's verdict. 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.
The SC bench criticised the Maharashtra Speaker's decision to appoint Gogawale (Shinde group) as chief Whip of the Shiv Sena party as illegal.
Sanjay Raut of Shiv Sena (UBT) said that if the top court has observed that Sunil Prabhu of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Sena remains the official whip, then as per its observation, 16 rebel MLAs, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, stand disqualified.
Raut also emphasised that since the process of formation of the government was illegal, the Shinde government is illegal.
“Sunil Prabhu remains the official whip of Shiv Sena as per SC's observations, so rebel MLAs stand disqualified,” Raut said, as per news agency PTI.