Hours after the Supreme Court quashed the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the tri-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government seems to tread cautiously.
The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress dispensation led by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, meanwhile, has raised the issue of governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari not yet clearing the nomination of 12 MLCs from the governor’s quota - which has been pending for over a year.
The BJP, however, described it as a tight slap on the face of the government.
“It is a tight slap on the face of the government,” leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis said. “It was not only a question of 12 MLAs but of more than 50 lakh citizens in these 12 constituencies. Since the beginning, we were saying that it was a completely unconstitutional and gross misuse of power to suspend our MLAs for such a long period to create an artificial majority and that too for no valid reason and the Supreme Court has upheld our stand,” he said thanking the apex court.
On 5 July 2021, during the monsoon 12 MLAs were suspended for “abusive language” and “misbehaving” with Bhaskar Jadhav, who was the Presiding Officer chair, during a discussion on political reservations to the OBCs.
The MLAs are Ashish Shelar, Parag Alavani, Ram Satpute, Sanjay Kute, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkalkar, Shirish Pimple, Jaykumar Rawal, Yogesh Sagar, Narayan Kuche, Kirtikumar Bagadia.
Shelar, who is BJP’s chief whip, moved the Supreme Court.
The MVA, however, were guarded in their response.
“The Vidhan Sabha has the power to suspend MLAs…or for that matter, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha can suspend MPs…it is well within its powers,” Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut said, and raised the issue of MVA government’s request of MLCs nomination pending with governor.
“It is now an issue of jurisdictions of court and jurisdictions of legislative bodies…it is now a matter concerning Assemblies across the country and Parliament,” NCP chief spokesperson and minority affairs minister Nawab Malik said, adding that the Legislature secretariat would study the order after which the Speaker would take a call.
State Congress president Nana Patole, who is a former Speaker, said that the Legislature secretariat would study the order first. “Let them first look and study the order,” he said.
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