The Bombay High Court on Sunday issued notices to three ministers who were inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis government recently. The notices were issued to Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Jaydutt Kshirsagar and Avinash Mahatekar.
The court sought a response from the three for the petition filed against them for taking the oath of office as cabinet ministers. The petition was filed by Surinder Arora, a Mumbai resident and president of the Bharat Jan Aadhar Party, along with two Ahmednagar residents Sanjay Kale and Sandeep Kulkarni, who are social workers.
The petitioners said that the ministers were disqualified on the ground of defection as per the Constitution. They added that the ministers cannot be elected within the next six months as per the Representation of the People Act since elections in Maharashtra will be held only after a few months.
While Vikhe-Patil recently quit the Congress and Kshirsagar quit the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Mahatekar was defeated in the state Assembly elections held in 2014.
According to the petition, "There is no chance that these people would be elected anytime before the dissolution of the 13th State Legislative Assembly on November 9, 2019, because it is not possible even for the Election Commission of India to fill in those vacancies anytime before."
With this, the petitioners sought quashing of the appointment of all three ministers, grant an interim injunction restraining them from acting as ministers and to direct the Assembly Speaker to decide on the matter within two weeks.