Supreme Court refuses to restore MVA government in Maharashtra saying Uddhav Thackeray resigned voluntarily as Chief Minister of the state. The apex court said as Mr Thackeray did not face the floor test and tendered his resignation, hence the Governor was justified in administering the oath to Mr Eknath Shinde with the support of the largest party BJP.
The apex court was delivering its judgment in the case of the defection of 16 MLAs in June 2022 from the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. The Thackeray faction had sought disqualification of the MLAs under the anti-defection law of the country.
The Supreme Court also referred its 2016 judgment in the Nabam Rebia case to a larger bench. The verdict was delivered by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and comprised of Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha. The five-judge bench delivered the judgment on a batch of cross-petitions filed by Uddhav Thackeray and chief minister Eknath Shinde factions on the Maharashtra political crisis.
