The Supreme Court made strong observations about the role of the then Governor of Maharashtra and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
Rival groups of Shiv Sena – the Eknath Shinde group and the Uddhav Thackeray group – petitioned the SC last year in relation to the political crisis in the state.
The Shinde group’s plea also challenged the disqualification notices served on him and 15 MLAs supporting him.
It held that, it cannot restore the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing the floor test in June last year.
Floor test cannot be used as a medium to solve intra-party disputes.
Governor is not entitled to enter the political arena and play a role in intra-party to inter-party disputes.
The court said that the Speaker must recognise only the whip and leader who are duly recognised by the political party.
The court also refused to interfere in the proceedings related to disqualifying 16 MLAs, including now Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The court also said that Governor was right in inviting Shinde to form the new government as Thackeray had resigned before the floor test.
The court also refused to invalidate the election of the Speaker just because some of the participating MLAs faced disqualification proceedings.
The court held that the whip on voting represents the will of the party and not its legislators.
It’s the party that appoints its whip and the house leader.
The most important conclusion is that a political party is superior to its legislative wing.