A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Thursday 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.
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.
As per the cause list published on the Supreme Court's website, a single judgement will be pronounced by Justice Chandrachud.
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During the hearing, the apex court also raised the question as to whether it could reinstate a Chief Minister who had resigned without facing the floor test.
On June 29, 2022, the court had refused to stay the Governor's direction to the 31-month-old MVA government led by Thackeray to take a floor test. Sensing defeat, Thackeray had resigned before taking the floor test.
On its part, the Thackeray faction urged the court to "turn back the clock" and restore the "status quo ante" as it had done in 2016 when it reinstalled Nabam Tuki as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
The judgment will decide the fate of the Sena-BJP government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. 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) had 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.