Accepting Uddhav Group's Pleas Will Impose "Minority Tyranny" In House : Eknath Shinde To Supreme Court

Opposing the petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray faction in the Supreme Court in respect of the issues arising out of the rift within the Shiv Sena party, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said that the actions taken by the Governor and the Speaker are not amenable to judicial review.

Shinde has said that to accept the arguments of the Uddhav group would result in the following consequences :

(i) minority tyranny within the House;

(ii). anti-democratic and minority Government to continue illegally in office; and

(iii).a Chief Minister, who has lost the confidence of his own party to continue in office.

Shinde has filed a common counter-affidavit to the petitions filed by Subhash Desai and Sunil Prabhu, the General Secretary and the Chief Whip of the Shiv Sena respectively appointed by Uddhav Thackeray. They had filed the petitions challenging the Governor's direction to Uddhav Thackeray government to take floor test, the decision of Governor to swear-in Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister, the election of Rahul Narwerkar as the Speaker, the recognition of Bharat Gogawale(as appointed by Shinde group as the Chief Whip of Shiv Sena  and the disqualification proceedings initiated by the newly elected Speaker against MLAs of Uddhav group for voting in alleged violation of the whip.

In the counter-affidavit, Shinde says that the ultimate relief sought by the petitioners in effect is the restoration of the status quo ante with respect to the Maharashtra Government as on June 27, which relief has now become infructous with the resignation of Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister on June 29.

Referring to Article 212 of the Constitution, it is argued that the proceedings within the assembly cannot be called in question before the Court. Also, the decisions of the Governor in relation to invitation to form government cannot be subjected to judicial review.

"The appointment of a Chief Minister by the Hon'ble Governor, who subsequently proved his majority through a completely valid floor test on the floor of the House, cannot be called into question before any Court", the plea states. Refuting the argument of the petitioners that the Governor could not have invited Shinde to form the government while disqualification proceedings were pending against him,  it is argued that at the time of inviting a party to form government, the Governor is not expected to look into any potential disqualification.

Intra-party decisions taken democratically through majority cannot be interfered with

"In a parliamentary form of democracy, the underlying basis for testing the validity/invalidity of any action is 'numbers'. A group of 15, cannot call a group of 39 as rebels/delinquent. It is in fact the other way around", the plea states.

Any decision taken democratically and approved by a thumping majority of a Legislature Party is not to be interfered with by Courts. The Petitioner, through the present Petitions is trying to challenge the democratic decisions taken by the members of a democratic party out of their own free will.

Shinde also opposes the application filed by the Uddhav group seeking to restrain the Election Commission of India from deciding who is the "real Shiv Sena" till the disqualification issue is decided. In this regard, it is submitted that the Election Commission is deciding within the powers of its exclusive jurisdiction under the the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968 and such proceedings are not dependent on the proceedings under the tenth schedule pending before the Speaker.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Hima Kohli will hear the petitions on August 3.