india

Updated: Nov 13, 2019 03:09 IST

The Shiv Sena approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening, alleging that Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had acted in bad faith by refusing to accept the party’s claim to government formation and declining to give it reasonable time to prove a majority in the house.

Seeking an urgent hearing on the matter, the Shiv Sena, in its petition, accused the governor of acting at the behest of the central government.

Refusing an urgent hearing, the Supreme Court registry asked the Shiv Sena to mention the case before the court on Wednesday morning .

People familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity that a fresh petition challenging President’s Rule imposed on Maharashtra on the governor’s recommendation could be filed by the party on Wednesday.

Accusing the governor of being partisan, the petition filed by Sena asserted that while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “was granted 48 hours [by the governor] to show its majority, the Petitioner’s claim was rejected within a period of 24 hours despite the categorical assertion of the Petitioner that it has the majority and that it be given three days’ time to demonstrate the same.”

The petition also expressed apprehension that President’s Rule could result in horse trading by the BJP and aid the party in somehow cobbling together a majority through unconstitutional means.

“It is submitted that any imposition of President’s Rule would also result in horse trading by the BJP and to somehow cobble up a majority by using unconstitutional means. It is submitted that in these circumstances any precipitative action by the Governor to enable the BJP to acquire the MLAs by poaching would be an anathema to democracy and cannot be countenanced,” said the petition.

“...whether a political party has the requisite majority or not cannot be determined by the Raj Bhavan, and can only be tested on the floor of the House. Once the Petitioner had staked claim, the Hon’ble Governor ought to have invited the Shiv Sena/Petitioner to prove its majority on the floor of the House...,” the petition added.

The petition, filed by advocate Sunil Fernandes, said: “The Hon’ble Governor vide the impugned action dated 11.11.2019 acting arbitrarily, in hot haste and in complete violation of the law laid down by this Hon’ble Court in SR Bommai vs UOI, (1994) 3 SCC 1, has rejected the claim of the Petitioner to form the Government and has also refused to grant even three days’ time to the Petitioner to demonstrate that it has the requisite majority to form the Government in Maharashtra.”

Alleging violation of constitutional provisions, the petitions asserted that “as per the constitutional conventions and practice, the Governor is duty bound to allow reasonable time for political parties to conclude their negotiation on government formation and not act as an agent/mouthpiece of the Central Government and /or the Ruling party at the Centre and has to allow reasonable time to political outfits to present the conclusion of their negotiations before taking a decision to reject any claim to form the Government. It is submitted that the instant is a classic case where these constitutional conventions which have the force of law have been followed by the Governor in sheer breach.”

The petition filed in the top court also annexed letters of support from eight independent MLAs, namely Narendra Bondekar, Manjula Gavith, Shankar Rao Gadak, Chandrakanth Patil, Ashish Jaiswal, Bachhu Kadu, Rajkumar Patel and Rajendra Patel Vadraokar to the Shiv Sena.