The order was given by a bench headed by Justices V M Kanade, which dismissed a bunch of petitions challenging the voice vote ordered by the Speaker Haribhau Bagde after a trust vote motion was moved by the BJP to prove its majority in the 288-member House.
Earlier, the bench had asked the petitioners to cite Supreme Court judgements to show that high court had the jurisdiction to hear such matters. Accordingly, some apex court orders were submitted to the HC.
The other two were public interest litigations (PILs) on the same issue and had been clubbed with Khan's petition. One among them was filed by Rajkumar Awasthi, while the other jointly by Sanjay Lakhe Patil and Sanjay Chitnis.
The PILs argued that under the constitutional provisions, the respondents (Speaker and Chief Minister) are duty-bound to hold a secret ballot or head count to establish government's majority in House. But this was not done.
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Opposition Shiv Sena and Congress had strongly criticised the "manner" in which Fadnavis government won the crucial trust vote dubbing it as a "foul play".
However, the BJP government had defended the Speaker's decision, saying all norms were adhered to in passing the trust vote.
"The first option for the Speaker is voice vote followed by a division of votes...If majority is proved by a voice vote then there is no need to go for a head count," Advocate General Sunil Manohar had argued during the course of hearing on petitions.