Thackeray says, ‘If Shinde, Fadnavis have any ethics, they must resign’

Mumbai, Maharashtra political crisis News Live Updates Today: A constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that the House speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was "illegal". Mumbai, Maharashtra News Live Updates Today: The Supreme Court said that Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray cannot be reinstated as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra as he resigned from the post voluntarily without facing a floor test. However, it said that the then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to call for a floor test that ultimately toppled the Uddhav-Thackeray-led MVA government was not in accordance with the law. The top court was dealing with the issue of disqualification of 16 MLAs belonging to CM Shinde’s Sena. The 16 MLAs, including Shinde, were sent disqualification notices for not attending a party meeting convened by the then CM Uddhav Thackeray despite the whip which was issued. In July, when Shinde sought a trust vote on the floor of the state legislative assembly, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena combine got the support of 164 out of a total of 288 MLAs and became the chief minister. After the Supreme Court said that the Speaker must decide on the disqualification of the 16 MLAs within a reasonable period, Maharashtra House Speaker Rahul Narvekar said that the party will act accordingly. "The SC has said that the Speaker will decide on the disqualification of 16 MLAs. There was no clarity on Schedule 10 that whether a political party or legislature party can decide on the whip. Now that Hon'ble SC has given a clear interpretation, we will accordingly decide. Earlier there was no clarity," he said.