The Supreme Court of India is set to deliver its verdict on a batch of petitions related to the 2022 Maharashtra political crisis on Thursday. The crisis resulted in Eknath Shinde taking over as Chief Minister from Uddhav Thackeray following a split in the Shiv Sena party. The five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, had reserved its verdict on the matter on March 16 after hearing the case for eight days.
A single judgment will be pronounced by Justice Chandrachud, according to the cause list published on the Supreme Court’s website. During the hearing, the apex court raised the question of whether it could reinstate a Chief Minister who had resigned without facing the floor test.
On June 29, 2022, the court refused to stay the Governor’s direction to the 31-month-old MVA government led by Thackeray to take a floor test. Thackeray resigned before taking the floor test. The Thackeray faction urged the court to “turn back the clock” and restore the “status quo ante” as it had done in 2016 when it reinstalled Nabam Tuki as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
The verdict will determine the fate of the Sena-BJP government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Last year, Shinde and 39 MLAs rebelled against the undivided Sena party leadership, resulting in the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and the party’s split.
Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30, a day after Uddhav Thackeray quit the post. Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP was sworn in as the deputy CM. The Election Commission (EC) recognized the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena on February 17 this year, based on the majority in the Maharashtra Assembly. The Shinde faction has 40 MLAs in the Assembly, compared to the Thackeray faction’s 15.
