HC asks Maharashtra CM, Governor to 'sit together' and 'sort out differences'

The Speaker's post in the Maharashtra Assembly is lying vacant following Nana Patole's appointment as state Congress president last year

In what seems to be a comment on the differences between Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the Bombay High Court felt that the two Constitutional functionaries don’t trust each other.

“….it is unfortunate that the two highest functionaries do not trust each other,” a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik said in its oral observations during the hearing of two PILs.

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However, it felt that they could sit together and iron out the differences.

The observation came vis-a-vis the issue of Koshyari not yet deciding on the nomination of 12 members from the Governor’s quota to the Maharashtra Legislative Council - which was submitted by the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government nearly one-and-a-half-years ago on 6 November, 2020.

In August 2021, the Chief Justice's bench disposed of the PIL against the Governor “inaction" in nominating members observing that it was a duty to decide on recommendations of council of ministers for MLC member's nomination within a reasonable time.

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The court’s observations came while hearing of two PILs filed by Mahesh Jethmalani and Subhash Jha, challenging the procedure for selection of the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, which is vacant for over a year now.

"The public is least interested in who is going to be the Speaker of the Assembly. Just go and ask the public who is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha? How many in this court will be able to answer?…You have to show that this issue is worthy of a PIL.The Speaker is just a member of the legislature. What is the public interest here?,” the court observed.

It further said: “…..At that time, it was argued that democracy will collapse, etc….has the democracy died because the Governor hasn't nominated the 12 MLCs yet, an issue graver than the present? Our democracy is not as brittle…..we should have some faith in the Governor's discretion. The Chief Minister is the head of the government. We cannot go to the extent of saying either of the two are not right here," the high court said.

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