POLITICAL MORALITY DIFFERENT FROM CONSTITUTIONAL

MORALITY: SC DISMISSES PLEA AGAINST MAHA VIKAS AGHADI

GOVERNMENT
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed plea filed to declare the formation of Maharashtra
Government by Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress
as ‘unconstitutional’. The Maharashtra election have been the political highlight of the month
with conspiracy awaiting at every turn. The nature of politics was briefly described in this
little Maharashtra scenario wherein standing in election in alliance with one party turned
heads on changing alliance at the time of forming government. The question of constitutional
morality and political morality were raised. The court in its judgement was adamant and
blatant that this topic of dispute is beyond the jurisdiction of the court. Justice N.V Ramana,
who led the bench observed “Constitutional morality is different from Political Morality.
Court can’t be asked to go where there is no jurisdiction”.
The BJP and Sena, which fought the October 21 assembly polls in alliance, had secured a
comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats, respectively, in the 288-member
assembly. The Congress and the NCP, pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats, respectively.
the marathon began when decks were cleared for BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to again
become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. In a surprise twist, NCP's Ajit Pawar lent his
support to BJP and was also sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister. The Sena then began
talks with the Congress-NCP alliance and consented Shiv Sena President Uddhav
Thackeray to become Maharashtra Chief Minister. The alliance of the three parties was
expected to stake claim for government formation on Monday. Where it was assumed that
BJP has triumphed, the subsequent alliance of the three parties and winning in claiming
majority, BJP was left haggard and clueless with no sort of defence mechanism in hand.
The state was plunged into a political crisis after the Sena broke its three-decade-long ties
with the BJP after its partner refused to accede to its demand of sharing the chief minister's
post. All three parties have agreed that Shiv Sena will keep the Chief Minister's post for a
full five-year term and there will be no rotation among the alliance, which was the main
reason why Sena broke up with its ally BJP, who had refused to share the chief minister’s
post for 2.5 years each.

The plea filed by Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha member Pramod Pandit Joshi stated that
shiv sena committed breach of trust by breaking ties with pre-election alliance with BJP to
form a post-election alliance with NCP and Congress, against whom the pre-election alliance
had fought elections. The continuous trust issues and uncertainty prevailing in Maharashtra
highlighted on the rights of parties to form alliances and how that can’t be regulated or
scrutinized by the judiciary. On citing some old judgements related to pre-poll alliances, the
Court remarked that these issues are amenable to the jurisdiction. It can be clearly interpreted
that political alliance has many layers of decisions and conspiracy to it that is not entirely
known to everybody in the democracy. Similarly, the prima facie situation of the alliance
can’t be used to determine unconstitutionality of the alliance. The bench also asked why it
should enter into pre poll and post-poll alliance since all these things were for the people to
judge. The court also explained it cannot ask the political parties to implement their
manifestos on coming to power.in a democracy, it is for the people to decide their
representatives and despite arguments by the petitioner that people voted for the BJP-Sena
alliance and for the promises mentioned in the manifesto but that wasn’t considered a
reasonable or strong enough reason to quash rights of political parties to form alliances.
Judicial regulation in the functioning of democracy can be harmful and antithesis to the entire
democratic framework.
Politicians are realists, unlike brokers and traders who prattle on about the political stability
that single-party rule alone, in their opinion, can bring about. BJP, the party in the strongest
position nationally, thanks both to its organisational strength and the popularity of its mascot,
Narendra Modi, swallowed its pride along with the abuse hurled in its direction by ally Shiv
Sena, to firm up the alliance it needed in Maharashtra, a state of crucial 48 parliamentary
seats.