Unfortunate chief minister and governor do not trust each other: Bombay High Court on MLC nomination stalemate

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik said that Thackeray and Koshyari can sit together and sort out the issues between themselves as it dismissed two public interest litigations (PILs) that challenged amendments made to the procedures of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly speaker election.

The high court on August 13 last year said that it is “desirable” that Koshyari decides on the recommendations of the state cabinet on nominating 12 members to the Legislative Council at the earliest.

The state cabinet on November 6, 2020, proposed 12 names for nomination as MLCs under the governor’s quota.

The court had said the governor should speak to the chief minister regarding his reservations on the list of nominees, if any, within a reasonable time, else the “statutory intent will stand defeated”.

On Wednesday, the bench observed that the governor was yet to approve nomination despite the verdict passed by it nearly eight months ago.

“We are also a constitutional court. How have we been treated? We had passed an order on the 12 MLCs case. Today we are in March, 2022. Eight months have passed and still, nothing has happened,” the court said.

It went on to orally observe: “At the time, it had been argued that democracy will collapse etc. Has democracy died because the governor has not nominated 12 MLCs yet, an issue graver than the present? Our democracy is not as brittle. Erase all these differences. Your ramblings do not take the state forward.”

The court also expressed displeasure over the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs for a year, which was later set aside by the Supreme Court.

“You do not allow an elected member to reach out to voters, the public for a year. This is absolutely arbitrary,” said the court.