Court verdicts tight slap to Maharashtra government: Devendra Fadnavis

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis

Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said the verdicts given on Friday by the Supreme Court as well as the Bombay High Court over the recent developments in Maharashtra were a "tight slap" to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Although Fadnavis did not specify which verdicts he was talking about, he was apparently referring to the Supreme Court''s decision to extend journalist Arnab Goswami''s interim bail and the Bombay High Court''s observation that the action of Mumbai civic body''s demolishing part of actor Kangana Ranaut''s bungalow in Mumbai was illegal and smacks of malafide intentions.

In a series of tweets in Marathi, Fadnavis said, "The verdicts of two courts in the country given on the same day in a way sum up the performance of the government in the last one year. But will they now call the SC and the HC as Maharashtra-drohi (anti-Maharashtra)?"

"The verdicts of the SC and the HC over some of the incidents that occurred in Maharashtra in the recent past due to the rulers blinded by power, were a tight slap to the government. They should realise that every voice against the government cannot be crushed like this," he added.

"The state government forgot that we have a democracy in the country. If the courts have to remind this government that criminal procedure code is for the protection of the people and not for their harassment, then it gives rise to a question whether they are violating the oath they had taken at the time of swearing-in," the former Maharashtra chief minister said.

When contacted over the courts'' decisions, Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, "I have come to know about these decisions through media. I need to study them thoroughly before commenting over it. I need some time."

The Supreme Court on Friday said the interim bail to journalist Arnab Goswami and two others in an abetment to suicide case will continue till the Bombay High Court disposes of their plea, and stated that the judiciary should ensure criminal law does not become a weapon for selective harassment.

The accused were arrested by Alibaug police in Maharashtra''s Raigad district on November 4 in connection with the suicide of architect-interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother in 2018 over alleged non-payment of dues by companies of the accused. Goswami walked out of Taloja jail on November 11 after the SC granted interim bail to him.

The Bombay High Court on Friday declared the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation''s (BMC) action of demolishing part of Ranaut's bungalow here as illegal and said it smacks of malafide intentions.

The court was presiding over a petition filed by Ranaut, seeking that the partial demolition of her Pali Hill bungalow carried out by the Shiv Sena-controlled BMC on September 9 be declared illegal.

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