The floor test will be done through open ballot and it will be recorded on video, the court said
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered floor test in Maharashtra Assembly for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to prove his majority in the House on November 27. The apex court also directed Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to ensure that all elected members of the house are sworn in on Wednesday itself. The entire exercise has to be completed by 5 pm. A bench comprising Justices N V Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna also said the entire proceedings has to be telecast live. Voting in the assembly shall not be on the basis of secret ballot, it said. The governor will also appoint a pro-tem speaker who will administer oath to the newly elected members.
The order comes a day after the court heard arguments by lawyers of the central government and the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress combine. The three parties argued that BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis doesn’t have the numbers to be chief minister, taking their fight separately to Parliament. BJP and the central government lawyers said Fadnavis will prove his majority, but the court didn’t have the power to direct Maharashtra’s governor to fix a deadline for a floor test in the Assembly.
On the eve of the SC hearing, the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress party paraded their legislators, an estimated 162, in front of the media at a five-star hotel in Mumbai to back their claim that the alliance commanded the majority in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.
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What the SC ordered in Maharashtra
*Here is what the Supreme Court said today:
The following procedure is to be followed for conducting the floor test:
The following procedure is to be followed for conducting the floor test:
a. Protem Speaker shall be solely appointed for the aforesaid agenda immediately.
b. All the elected members shall take oath on 27.11.2019, which exercise should be completed before 5:00 p.m.
c. Immediately thereafter, the Protem Speaker shall conduct the floor test in order to ascertain whether the Respondent No. 3 has the majority, and these proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with law. The floor test will not be conducted by secret ballot.
d. The proceedings have to be live telecast, and appropriate arrangements are to be made to ensure the same…
Read More: Maharashtra Government Formation
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