Onus on petitioners to prove claim of no majority in Assembly: Maharashtra government

The state government on Wednesday argued before the Bombay High Court that it was the onus of the petitioners of the two public interest litigations and that of Congress party to prove that majority in the legislature had voted against the confidence motion.

Counsel S G Aney informed a division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice Anuja that while the onus lies with the petitioners to prove that there was no majority, they had not been able to discharge this onus.

Aney further argued that the judicial review of the Speaker's order is possible in situations like "breach of natural justice, perversity, malafide committed if any, or ultra vires of the provisions of the Constitution and no such thing in the present case has occured".

The arguments were made while opposing the petition filed by Congress leader Naseem Khan and two others. Khan has claimed in his petition that the action of Speaker Haribhau Bagade while declaring that the BJP government had the majority by a volume of voices was fundamentally subversive of the law declared by the Supreme Court. The arguments will continue on Thursday.