New Delhi: The Supreme Court ordered the central government to produce the letters that Devendra Fadnavis submitted to Maharashtra Governor B.S. Koshyari, as well as the letters of support that made him swear-in the BJP leader as chief minister.
The court directed that the letters be submitted by Monday morning, putting off the floor test in state assembly for at least another 24 hours.
The breather to the BJP-NCP government came in response to an unusual petition filed by the Shiv Sena, the NCP led by Sharad Pawar, and the Congress Saturday night, praying that the Supreme Court hear the matter immediately, claiming that the Maharashtra Governor’s decision to swear-in the Fadnavis-led government was “unconstitutional”.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of Justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna, said that to adjudicate the issue, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had to produce the two letters by 10:30 am Monday.
Sharad Pawar expelled his nephew Ajit from the NCP Saturday evening for going with the BJP, and has since claimed that 51 of the 54 MLAs are still with him, not with Ajit.
Also read: Ajit Pawar, the ambitious nephew with a short fuse who remained in Sharad Pawar’s shadow