Editor's Pick: Maharashtra Governor’s decision to call floor test wrong, says Supreme Court

In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that in mid-2022, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari “erred” in calling for a trust vote that triggered the fall of Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the State. This has opened the doors for disqualification proceedings against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for defection from the Shiv Sena. The Shinde government will, however, continue in power for now. This is because, according to the court, Mr. Thackeray resigned before the floor test and as such it was right for Governor Koshyari to invite Mr. Shinde and form the new government. The court said that it could not quash Mr. Thackeray’s voluntary resignation that came a day ahead of the floor test on June 30, thus being unable to reinstate his government. “The Governor had no objective material on the basis of which he could doubt the confidence of the incumbent government… Floor test cannot be used as a means to settle differences within a political party… The Governor erred in concluding that Mr. Thackeray had lost support… The discretion to call for a floor test is not an unfettered discretion,” a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud observed. The court also listed factors to Speaker Rahul Narwekar to consider while deciding disqualification petitions. These include not accepting Shinde group’s sole defence that they had merely “split” from the Shiv Sena party, and not defected. According to the Court, the defence of a “split” was no longer available to the Shinde group with the deletion of Paragraph 3 from the Tenth Schedule by the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act in 2003. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor’s Pick and more. Click here. The Hindu’s Editorials Morality and majority: on the Supreme Court verdict on the political imbroglio in Maharashtra Descent into chaos: on the state of Pakistan’s politics The Hindu’s Daily News Quiz How many seats are there in the Karnataka Assembly? 234 200 180 224 To know the answer and play the full quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 12 May 2023 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( Maharashtra Governor’s decision to call floor test wrong: Supreme Court In [a unanimous judgment]( the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that in mid-2022, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari “erred” in calling for a trust vote that triggered the fall of Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the State. This has opened the doors for disqualification proceedings against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for defection from the Shiv Sena. The Shinde government will, however, continue in power for now. This is because, according to the court, Mr. Thackeray resigned before the floor test and as such it was right for Governor Koshyari to invite Mr. Shinde and form the new government. The court said that it could not quash Mr. Thackeray’s voluntary resignation that came a day ahead of the floor test on June 30, thus being unable to reinstate his government. “The Governor had no objective material on the basis of which he could doubt the confidence of the incumbent government… Floor test cannot be used as a means to settle differences within a political party… The Governor erred in concluding that Mr. Thackeray had lost support… The discretion to call for a floor test is not an unfettered discretion,” a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud observed. The court also listed factors to Speaker Rahul Narwekar to consider while deciding disqualification petitions. These include not accepting Shinde group’s sole defence that they had merely “split” from the Shiv Sena party, and not defected. According to the Court, the defence of a “split” was no longer available to the Shinde group with the deletion of Paragraph 3 from the Tenth Schedule by the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act in 2003. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor’s Pick and more. [Click here.]( The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][Morality and majority: on the Supreme Court verdict on the political imbroglio in Maharashtra]( [Arrow][Descent into chaos: on the state of Pakistan’s politics]( The Hindu’s Daily News Quiz How many seats are there in the Karnataka Assembly? - 234 - 200 - 180 - 224 To know the answer and play the full quiz, [click here.]( [Sign up for free]( [[SC stays promotion of 68 judicial officers in Gujarat] SC stays promotion of 68 judicial officers in Gujarat]( [[Explained | What is the SC ruling on Sena vs. Sena?] Explained | What is the SC ruling on Sena vs. Sena?]( [[Palani panchamirtham, the first temple prasadam to bag the GI tag] Palani panchamirtham, the first temple prasadam to bag the GI tag]( [[‘The Five Devils’ movie review: Léa Mysius takes a whiff at queer relationships and existentialism in this thrilling fantasy drama] ‘The Five Devils’ movie review: Léa Mysius takes a whiff at queer relationships and existentialism in this thrilling fantasy drama]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](