A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the trust vote that the BJP won to form government.
Rajkumar Awasthi, 38, filed the PIL through advocate Sugandh Deshmukh, making the Speaker, the state government and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis respondents.
Challenging the voice vote called for by the Speaker, the PIL states that the Speaker had failed to follow the procedure laid down in law while allowing the motion of trust vote. By rejecting the demand made by the members of the House, the Speaker has violated the provisions of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Rules (MLAR), says the PIL.
"As per the rule 41(1) [of MLAR], even if a single member of the House requests the Speaker for a decision by division, the same shall be done unless the Speaker is of the opinion that the division is unnecessarily claimed," states the petition.
If the Speaker feels that the division was unnecessarily claimed, he ought to have rung the bell for five minutes and thereafter, (a) should have asked the members to rise in their seats for the purpose of counting the votes or (b) asked them to record their votes by operating the automatic vote recorder.
The PIL states that the provisions of the law have to be followed whenever there is dispute as to whether the government is a truly representative one or not, or whether it has the requisite majority in the House to have a lawful and legitimate claim to form the government.
"Not following the provisions on some technical grounds amounts to substantial illegality and further, a fraud on the Constitution," adds the PIL.
Seeking quashing of the trust vote, the PIL seeks that the Speaker be directed to call for a meeting or session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly forthwith to reconsider the vote of confidence in favour or against the government formed by Fadnavis.
The PIL has also requests the HC to call for the minutes and the video recordings of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly pertaining to the events that transpired there on November 12.
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