Shinde Survives Due To Thackeray Resignation Blunder
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-05-12 07:08:12
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The Shiv Sena (Shinde)-BJP government in Maharashtra has survived due to the historic blunder of Uddhav Thackeray in not facing the assembly for a floor test but resigning voluntarily after the split in the party. The Supreme Court has ruled that since Thackeray resigned out of his own volition, it cannot restore his government. The court categorically said that "this court cannot quash a resignation that has been submitted voluntarily". The court also said that it had, in its order on June 29, 2022, had stated that the final outcome of the petitions would be subject to the floor test that was to be held on June 30, 2022. It said that "since the trust vote was not held, the question of it being subject to the final outcome of these petitions does not arise".
The court was critical of former state governor B S Koshyari for concluding, without "objective material", that Thackeray had lost support of a majority of MLAs and asking him to take the floor test. It however held that his decision to invite Eknath Shinde to form the government once Thackeray had resigned on his own was legally correct. It said that the resolution of the Shinde faction, on which the governor relied to order Thackeray to take the floor test, did not mention that the MLAs wished to exit the MVA government. "The communication expressing dissatisfaction on part of the MLAs is not sufficient for the governor to call for a floor test", the court said.
Though full of drama and vitiated by the biased actions of the then governor, the case in Maharashtra lost its legal steam as soon as Thackeray resigned without facing the floor test. The Shiv Sena and its legal advisers could not read the SC judgment of June 29, 2022 properly as if they had done so, they would have advised Thackeray to take the floor test and then fight the legal battle as the court had clearly indicated that the floor test would be 'subject to the final outcome' of the batch of petitions submitted.
The order once again highlights the fact that state governors keep on doing things which they are not legally permitted to do despite several Supreme Court rulings. The role of the governor in being a non-partisan referee in case of disputes is nowhere to be seen. Governors now, more often than not, enter the political thicket and the SC expressly asked them not to do so. But as long as governors are not punished for their acts or no clear guidelines exist for them to take, or refrain from taking, certain actions in case of disputes there is not going to be any change in this situation.
