The PIL claimed that this “will lead to the death of democracy” and sought for the amendments to be declared illegal.The Maharashtra government on Monday opposed the PIL that challenged amendments made to the procedure of the election of the Speaker in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The state government has proposed to hold the elections to the Speaker’s post on March 9 and has sought the Governor’s go-ahead in this regard.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik was hearing the PIL filed by one Janak N Vyas through advocate Vishal Acharya, which said that the amendments made to the procedure after proposed changes suggested by the rules committee to Rule 6 and Rule 7 of the MLA Rules, for the election of Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, are “arbitrary” and “unconstitutional”.
The PIL claimed that this “will lead to the death of democracy” and sought for the amendments to be declared illegal.
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The MVA government said that the amendments were proposed by the rules committee in accordance with similar rules existing in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and legislative assemblies of a few other states.
The Speaker’s post fell vacant in February last year after Nana Patole stepped down and became the state Congress president.
On Monday, representing the state government, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni opposed the maintainability of the petition and said that the prayers sought for in the plea could not be raised in PIL. He added that the provisions under challenge are essential amendments to the earlier provision.
The bench then directed the petitioner to deposit an amount of Rs 2 lakh within two days as a pre-condition to hear the plea as per the Bombay HC PIL Rules and posted further hearing in the PIL to Thursday, March 3.
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