In a recent decision, the Bombay High Court expressed its disturbance over the indecision of the then Maharashtra governor concerning the state government’s recommendation to appoint 12 persons as Members of Legislative Council (MLCs). The court found the delay in action, following an order from 2021, to be “quite disturbing,” highlighting a significant gap in the constitutional process.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar, made these remarks while dismissing a petition by former corporator and Shiv Sena (UBT) member Sunil Modi. Modi’s petition challenged the withdrawal of a list of 12 MLC nominees sent to the governor in 2020 by the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under Uddhav Thackeray.
The court upheld the subsequent decision by the Eknath Shinde-led government to withdraw the nominations, stating that the governor’s lack of decision permitted the Council of Ministers to retract their recommendations legally. The judges noted, “The process initiated on November 6, 2020, could not reach its final destination, which, in our opinion, justified the Council of Ministers’ authority to withdraw the earlier recommendations.”
The legal tangle began when the Shinde government, coming to power in mid-2022, informed the governor that the list submitted by the previous administration was being retracted. This led to the governor returning the list to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) on September 5, 2022.
Further complicating the political landscape, in October 2024, the governor appointed seven new MLCs under his quota, including three from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and two each from the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Among the appointees are BJP’s state women’s wing chief Chitra Wagh, state general secretary Vikrant Patil, and Banjara community spiritual leader Dharmaguru Babusingh Maharaj Rathod. From the NCP side, former MLA Pankaj Bhujbal and Idris Naikwadi were nominated, while the Shiv Sena nominees included former MLC Manisha Kayande and former Lok Sabha MP Hemant Patil.
