Relief for Congress as Uttarakhand High Court orders fresh floor test on Thursday
In a major relief to the Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand, the High court today asked for a fresh floor test in the state Assembly on Thursday, two days after the state was put under President's Rule.
Hearing a petition by Rawat, the court also said that all nine Congress rebels who were disqualified by the speaker will be allowed to take part in the vote. It said the result of the voting should be presented to the court on April 1.
On Monday, a single bench of Justice US Dhyani had admitted a Congress petition on the imposition of the President's Rule and directed the Centre to file a counter reply. Rawat was represented by senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi while the central government was represented by Assistant Solicitor General Rakesh Thapaliyal.
During the proceedings, Singhvi cited the cases of Rameshwar Nath in Bihar and SR Bommai case in Karnataka and said that a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had ruled that the proving of majority was to be done on the Assembly floor.
He contended that the Harish Rawat-led Congress government was dismissed on the eve of a floor test to save the nine rebel Congress MLAs and prevent the government from proving its majority in the Assembly.
Singhvi pointed out that the rebel Congress legislators were taken in a chartered plane and seen "in public domain" with the BJP MLAs. He pleaded that after the disqualification of nine legislators by Uttarakhand Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, the house strength was down to 61.
The crisis in the hill state erupted on March 18 when nine Congress MLAs rebelled against Rawat's government, resulting in flip-flop in the passage of the Appropriation Bill. The BJP met the Governor the same day and staked claim to form the government.
However, the Centre imposed President's Rule last Sunday, a day before Rawat was supposed to take the floor test in the Assembly.
No comments:
Post a Comment