New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking direction for the Governor of Maharashtra to frame criteria for nomination to the Legislative Council of the state, saying the governors act as per the advice of the council of ministers and the courts cannot frame guidelines for them. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said there has been a separate mechanism for removal of lawmakers nominated by the governors and the courts cannot frame guidelines as to how they would act and nominate persons to the Legislative Council.
The governors are bound by the advice of the Chief Minister and the council of ministers and we cannot formulate guidelines for governors as to how they would act, said the bench which also comprised justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy. When the advocate insisted, the bench said, Do you want us to amend the Constitution. Sorry. (The petition is) dismissed.
Jagannath Shamrao Patil, a Latur-based school teacher, had filed the PIL for issuing specific directions to prepare norms for nominations of Maharashtra Legislative council by the Governor in discretion from specified fields to avoid parties in power to make recommendations for it. The plea said that due to the lack of specific norms or criteria, several eligible and deserving people are deprived from consideration of names for the purpose of their nominations as members of Maharashtra Legislative Council.
Seeking framing of guidelines, the plea said Clause 5 of Article 171 of the Constitution has given mandate to the Governor that the nomination shall consist of "persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art, co-operative movement and social service". The plea said there were no norms that have been framed yet on making the nominations from five prescribed categories.
"Thus, the political parties, who are in governance, are taking the undue advantage of this loophole and are making the recommendations of the names of the persons who are not from the prescribed category but who are either powerful in politics or to whom the political parties want to make powerful by way of such nomination," the plea had said. It had sought a direction that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, may be asked not to intervene in the process of nomination of members of legislative council.
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