A day after Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari administered oath of office to BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis and NCP rebel Ajit Pawar in an early morning hush hush ceremony that shocked everyone, constitutional experts including Soli J. Sorabjee and Sanjay Hegde have questioned the propriety of the Governor’s move.

Former Attorney General Sorabjee said the Maharashtra Governor’s action was simply incorrect. “I think the Governor acted hastily. It was simply incorrect. He should not have immediately sworn-in Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister. He should have waited to see the numbers of the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena alliance,” he said.

Pointing towards the SR Bommai case (SC, 1994), Sorabjee said the floor test is the only way to determine majority.

“In this case, the governor could have ordered the floor test immediately. This haste of his casts a doubt about his motivation. This will mean that people will start doubting the motives of our Constitutional functionaries. Then our system becomes vulnerable to suspicion and that is not good for our nation,” reminded Sorabjee, who was the Attorney General intermittently until 2004.