Plea filed in SC against Shinde forming govt

NEW DELHI: A fresh petition filed by the Uddhav Thackerayled Shiv Sena faction opposing the Maharashtra governor’s June 30 decision to invite rebel Sena MLAs supported by the BJP to form a government in the state will be heard in the Surpeme Court on July 11.

Sena leader Eknath Shinde was sworn-in as chief minister of Maharashtra on June 30, while former CM and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis became the deputy chief minister.

Friday‘s petition was mentioned by senior advocate Devadutt Kamat before a vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari on Friday to get the matter listed along with similar batch of cases coming up on Monday.

The bench agreed to list the petition before the appropriate bench that is scheduled to hear petitions on the issue of the trust vote, appointment of the chief whip in the Assembly by the newly-elected Speaker, and disqualification pleas pending against 16 rebel Sena MLAs.

In its Friday petition, filed through party general secretary Subhash Desai, the Thackeray camp said the decision of the governor to call upon Eknath Shinde to be chief minister of the new coalition and head of the 39 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs is “ex-facie unconstitutional” as the rebel MLAs have not merged with the BJP, making them liable to be disqualified under the Tenth Schedule.

“The action of the Governor dated June 30 in calling Eknath Shinde (Respondent No. 4) to be the Chief Minister is completely arbitrary and unconstitutional,” said the petition, filed through advocates Rajesh Inamdar and Anish R Shah. The petition also questioned the validity of proceedings in the Assembly conducted on July 3 and 4 by which the new speaker, BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar, was elected.