Maharashtra crisis: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, state govt, asks SG to produce all relevant documents

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Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Sunday issued notice to Centre, Maharashtra Govt, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar on Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena’s plea and directed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to produce relevant documents supporting invitation of BJP to form govt and letter of support of MLAs by 10.30 am tomorrow.

A three-judge bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna said appropriate orders will be passed tomorrow.

The petition had sought quashing of the Maharashtra Governor BS Koshiyari’s decision to invite Devendra Fadnavis to form the Government on Nov 23 as unconstitutional, arbitrary, illegal, void-ab-initio, and violative of Article 14 of Constitution of India.

It had further sought to invite the alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP “which has the support of more than 144 MLAs to form the government under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray”.

“…the instant Writ Petition seeks to challenge the brazen action of the Governor in inviting Devendra Fadnavis to form the Government, the Petitioners are also praying for an immediate floor test within twenty-four hours so as to avoid further horse trading and illegal maneuvers to somehow cobble up a majority from the MVA,” said the petition.

On Saturday, the Governor had ended the month-long political impasse in the state by administering the oath of Chief Minister office to Fadnavis and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as deputy CM.

Read the order below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11GeGQsdDbz_-jBkAgy3iVtWoD3XGTMeg

—India Legal Bureau