Maharashtra: What Does Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Plea Before Supreme Court Say?

The Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine on Saturday night filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the Maharashtra governor's decision to swear-in BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and demanded an immediate floor test to avoid "further horse trading". A bench of justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna will hear the plea on Sunday at 11:30 am. Earlier on Saturday, in a major turn of events, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Maharashtra’s chief minister, while NCP’s Ajit Pawar took oath as his deputy by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

On Saturday night, the three parties, Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP also sought a direction to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to invite them to form government under the leadership of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, saying they have the support of more than 144 MLAs.

What does the plea say?

1. The petitioners alleged that the governor has acted in a "partisan manner" and allowed himself to be a "pawn in the BJP's illegal usurpation of power".
2. Koshyari's actions on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, "culminating to swearing in on November 23 are textbook example of the governor acting at the behest of a political party in power at the Centre", it said.
3. Seeking quashing of the governor's decision inviting Fadnavis to form government, the plea said it is "unconstitutional, arbitrary and illegal", and violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
4. "Facing the prospect of a non-BJP government staking claim to power, the BJP on the intervening night of November 22 and 23 resorted to political machinations in an attempt to install a completely unconstitutional BJP government in the state," the plea said.
5. "More importantly the actions of the governor are entirely malafide and for extraneous considerations without even a prima facie satisfaction based on objective material that Fadnavis has majority support of the members of the house, the application said.