Mumbai: The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that there is no impediment to appoint seven Member of Legislative Council (MLC) by the Governor.
On Tuesday, former municipal corporator from Kolhapur Sunil Modi and Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary Sunil Modi told the high court that even as order was reserved in his plea challenging the withdrawal of a list of 12 MLC nominees sent for governor's approval in 2020, the government sent fresh names to the Governor yesterday.
State Advocate General Birendra Saraf told a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar that while the court had reserved order in Modi’s plea on October 7, no stay had been granted on appointment of MLCs. “There was never any stay (granted by court) or statement (made by State that it will not appoint MLCs). Even on October 7, they (petitioner) asked for a stay (on appointments), which the court did not grant,” Saraf said.
On a court query, Modi’s advocate Harshada Shrikandhe said that they were not seeking any relief at this stage and just wanted to bring the development to the court’s notice. “The court had reserved the order on October 7. This morning new appointments have been made,” said Shrikhande.
The HC, on October 7, concluded the hearing in Modi’s PIL and reserved the judgement. Modi had challenged the decision of the Eknath Shine led government to withdraw the recommendations made by erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi for the 12 nominated seats.
On August 13, 2021, the HC bench led by then Chief Justice Dipankar Datta (now Supreme Court judge) had disposed of a PIL by Ratan Soli Luth saying that it is “desirable” that then Governor Koshyari decides on the 12 nominations at the earliest, since more than eight months had already passed. The bench had further observed that it was the governor’s obligation to accept or return recommendations made by the Cabinet within a “reasonable time”, and that seats in the “cannot be kept vacant indefinitely”.
After the government changed in 2022 and Eknath Sinde took over as the State Chief Minister, the new cabinet reportedly wrote to the Governor that they were withdrawing the pending list of 12 names submitted by the earlier government. On September 5, 2022, the Governor accepted the same and the list was returned to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Modi has challenged this before the HC raising a grievance against the Governor's refusal to act on nominations made to the Legislative Council of Maharashtra for an inordinately long period. His counsel Yashraj Sing Deora had argued that the Governor must not act as a mere rubber stamp but should carefully consider the cabinet's advice and recommendations. Saraf submitted that once Shinde became Chief Minister, he had contacted the Governor, who returned the file regarding the 12 MLCs, making the issue moot.
The court had then remarked that the process had ended with the withdrawal. They asked what would the Governor act upon, if the advice had been retracted. The court had then closed the PIL for order.
