Apex court to hear today Sena's plea against floor test in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Maharashtra Governor set only a few hours before the governing Shiv Sena alliance to prove its majority on the floor.

Now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Sena's challenge to the Governor's direction at 5 pm today.

Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked the Uddhav Thackeray administration to take a floor test on June 30.

The state Assembly secretary was to convene a special session of the Assembly tomorrow over a single agenda of trust vote, according to news agency ANI.

The notification asks for the session to begin at 11 am going with live telecast.

The direction for floor test came in the wake of Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis' visit to Governor on Tuesday night.

At the Supreme Court, a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala took note of submissions of senior advocate AM Singhvi for an urgent hearing in view of the decision taken by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asking the MVA government to prove majority at 11am on Thursday.

"We will keep at 5pm. Please make sure that paper books are supplied by 3pm to parties concerned," the bench said.

Singhvi said the floor test cannot include names which are "stigmatised".

Earlier, the apex court on June 27 had kept in abeyance the disqualification proceedings against rebel Shiv Sena lawmakers before the deputy speaker of the state assembly till July 11, and also sought responses from the state government and others on their pleas questioning the legality of notices seeking their disqualification.

Shiv Sena rebel leader Eknath Shinde visited Kamakhya temple in Guwahati in the morning where he is camping with dissident lawmakers.

Shinde reportedly said he would return to Mumbai on Wednesday and added he prayed for the welfare of the people of Maharashtra

With inputs from PTI