Mumbai, May 11 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday said that he staked claim to form the government last June within the legal and constitutional framework and it has now got the stamp of the Supreme Court.

Speaking to reporters here after the top court gave its judgment on the political crisis that led to the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government following a revolt by the Shinde faction, the CM and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis welcomed the decision.

Shinde said, “The government we formed was within the legal and constitutional framework. The Supreme Court has now put its stamp on it. Earlier, people used to derive pseudo-pleasure by calling our government an unconstitutional alliance.” .

Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders have often called the Shinde government "unconstitutional".

Now, all those critics and their criticism have become irrelevant, Shinde said.

Fadnavis also took a dig at Thackeray saying the latter should not talk about morality. “Thackeray said that he did not face the floor test on moral grounds. I want to know where was his morality when he contested state assembly elections in 2019 with us but joined hands with the Opposition to form the government,” Fadnavis said.

“Thackeray gave the resignation out of shame,” he claimed.

Shinde said, “The former chief minister knew he was in the minority. Now he is talking about his whip will be applicable in the party, but does he have enough MLAs?” .

The Supreme Court on Thursday held that it cannot restore the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray as he resigned without facing the floor test in June last year.

In a unanimous verdict on a batch of pleas related to the political crisis that led to the fall of the three-party MVA government led by Thackeray following a revolt by the Shinde faction, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud held that the then Speaker's decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was “illegal”.

The court also pulled up then Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and said he did not have reasons based on objective material before him to reach the conclusion that then chief minister Thackeray had lost the confidence of the House. PTI ND.