NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court of India, in a unanimous judgment, effectively opened the doors for disqualification proceedings against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for defection from the Shiv Sena and held that the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari “erred” in calling for a trust vote, which triggered the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in mid-2022.

The court also said that Governor Koshyari was right in inviting Mr. Shinde to form the new government as Mr. Thackeray had resigned before the floor test. This means that the Shinde government will continue in power for now.

“The Governor had no objective material on the basis of which he could doubt the confidence of the incumbent government… Floor test cannot be used as a means to settle differences within a political party… The Governor erred in concluding that Mr. Thackeray had lost support… The discretion to call for a floor test is not an unfettered discretion,” a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed.

The court said that it could not quash the voluntary resignation of Mr. Thackeray as CM, and thus reinstate his MVA government. “Had Mr. Thackeray refrained from resigning from the post of the Chief Minister, this court could have considered the grant of the remedy of reinstating the government headed by him,” it said.