3 parties ask SC to order Maha Assembly floor test

The Shiv Sena, the NCP, and the Congress on Sunday asked the Supreme Court to order an immediate floor test in Maharashtra Assembly, saying 41 MLAs of Sharad Pawar-led party have already removed Ajit Pawar as their leader on Saturday.

The combine led by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi contended before a bench presided over by Justice N V Ramana that it was betrayal and annihilation of democracy that government has been allowed to be formed when 41 NCP MLAs are not with the BJP.

"If Devendra Fadnavis has numbers to prove majority, let him prove it on the floor of the House, else we have numbers to form government in Maharashtra," Sibal said.

Singhvi submitted that 41 MLAs of the NCP are with Sharad Pawar. While 54 is the total strength of the NCP, 41 MLAs wrote to the Maharashtra Governor saying Ajit Pawar has been removed as the party leader, Singhvi said.

Sibal said that the November 30 deadline given by the Governor to the ruling party to prove the majority is meant to do 'something else'.

The top court said that no one was disputing that floor test was the best method to show the majority.

Opposing their contention, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for some BJP MLAs, said that the three parties were given time but they did not form a government. “So let Fadnavis prove majority as there was no tearing hurry,” Rohatgi told the bench.

“It would be breaching self-restraint and this may amount to encroaching upon the field reserved for the Governor. They were sleeping for three weeks. Now, they say pass ex parte order for a floor test,” he said.

Rohatgi maintained that the Governor's decision to invite a political party was not open to judicial review.

"Every party should be allowed some time to respond to the plea and allow us to spend Sunday peacefully," Rohatgi said.