Maharashtra crisis floor test: Jailed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to vote during the floor test in Maharashtra tomorrow. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear their pleas and will do so today in the evening at 5:30 pm.
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala was told by advocate Sudhanshu S Choudhuri that the two MLAs have been booked for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and are in jail.
He said the two leaders want to participate in the Maharashtra legislative assembly floor test scheduled to be held on Thursday at 11 am.
The SC will also hear a plea of Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu challenging the Maharashtra Governor's direction to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to take a floor test in the Assembly.
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala took note of submissions of senior advocate A M Singhvi that an urgent hearing was needed in view of the decision taken by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asking the MVA government to prove a majority at 11 am on Thursday.
As the bench commenced proceedings for the day, Singhvi, appearing for Prabhu, sought an urgent hearing of his petition for a stay on the "illegal floor test" ordered for tomorrow by the Governor. Singhvi said the votes of MLAs facing disqualification would be illegally counted if a floor test is held and it cannot include names which are "stigmatised".
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