'Unfortunate that Maha CM and Governor don't trust each other, sit and sort out'

Referring to differences between Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Governor B S Koshyari over various issues the Bombay High Court on said Wednesday it was unfortunate that the two highest constitutional functionaries in the state did not trust each otherA bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik said it would be appropriate for the two the CM and the governor to sit together and sort out the differencesThe court made the oral observations while presiding over two PILs filed through counsels Mahesh Jethmalani and Subhash Jha challenging the procedure for selection of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker The HC dismissed the pleas after a lengthy hearing holding that the procedure did not breach the citizens fundamental right to equality before law as guaranteed by Article 14 of the ConstitutionJethmalani representing BJP MLA Girish Mahajan in one of the two PILs told the HC that the present procedure brought through an amendment in December 2021 that provided for the chief minister alone to advice the governor on such selection was unconstitutional and the governor must be advised by a council of ministers and not just the CMJethmalani further argued that by not interfering in the issue the court would be failing to protect public interestThe HC however said the petitioners would have to try harder to show how the general public was being affected by the election of the Assembly SpeakerThe public is least interested in who is going to be the Speaker of the Assembly Just go and ask the public who is the Speaker of the Lok Sabha How many in this court will be able to answer the HC saidYou have to show that this issue is worthy of a PILThe Speaker is just a member of the legislature What is the public interest here the court askedThe Speakers post in the Maharashtra Assembly is lying vacant following Nana Patoles appointment as state Congress president last yearThe HC also referred to the recent stalemate between the Maharashtra CM and the governor over the nomination of 12 members of the Legislative Council in the state under the governors quotaThe issue was raised before the HC in a PIL last year and in August 2021 another bench led by CJ Datta had held that it was the duty of Governor Koshyari to declare his decision on such nomination within reasonable timeThe HC had then said the governor must speak with the chief minister and let the latter know about his reservations if any on the list of nomineesOn Wednesday the court said the governor was yet to finalise the nomination despite its order passed almost eight months agoAt that time it was argued that democracy will collapse etc the HC saidHas the democracy died because the governor hasnt nominated the 12 MLCs yet an issue graver than the present Our democracy is not as brittle it saidThe bench said it was not appropriate for an appellate court to interfere in all legislative mattersWe should have some faith in the governors discretion The chief minister is the head of the state We cannot go to the extent of saying either of the two are not right here the HC saidThe unfortunate part in Maharashtra is this that the two highest constitutional functionaries do not trust each other You both CM and governor please sit together and sort this out between yourselves it saidThe court while dismissing the pleas also asked where such an amendment prohibited other legislators from voicing their suggestions on the Speakers electionThe court also said that the sum of Rs 12 lakh out including Rs 10 lakh submitted by Mahajan and Rs 2 lakh by citizen Janak Vyas at the beginning of the hearing to prove their respective bonafide stood forfeitedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever