India Supreme Court orders floor test in Maharashtra
India Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader Devendra Fadnavis to prove his majority in parliament of the state of Maharashtra within 24-hour following a petition submitted by the coalition of Indian National Congress, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), reports NDTV.
A three-judge bench of justice NV Ramana, justice Ashok Bhushan and justice Sanjiv Khanna said that the floor test has to be conducted by Wednesday after all the members of Maharashtra assembly are sworn in by 5:00pm today.
The court has also directed Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to ensure that all the elected MPs are sworn in before the floor test, including the interim speaker, who will presided over the trust vote, the NDTV report added.
The judges further said the entire proceedings would be telecast live and the trust voting shall not be on the basis of secret ballot, the report said.
Meanwhile, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis resigned after around 80 hours of sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister following the resignation of NCP’s rebel leader Ajit Pawar as his deputy.
The BJP and Shiv Sena had fought the Maharashtra Assembly elections as an alliance but parted ways after the results were announced over sharing the chief ministerial post, the NDTV reports.
As the parties reached an impasse, Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress formed an alliance to stake claim.
However, in a surprise move on Saturday, Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari swore-in Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar as the chief minister and the deputy chief minister respectively, the NDTV added.
The NDTV report further said that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance challenged this at the Supreme Court with a petition claiming that the governor was “duty bound” to study the claim of Devendra Fadnavis before inviting him to form the government.
Quoting Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, the NDTV says this was especially the case when the Sena, NCP and the Congress expressed their intention to stake claim to form the government.
