 "Harish Rawat")
In a huge embarrassment to the Narendra Modi government as well as for the Amit Shah-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday quashed the imposition of President’s rule in the state.
A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist, said the March 27 proclamation of the Centre to put Uttarakhand under President’s rule was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The Bench restored the Harish Rawat-headed Congress government but asked it to prove its majority in a fresh floor test on April 29. The Centre is likely to move the Supreme Court “at the earliest” to challenge the High Court's order, government sources said.
Dealing a blow to any chances the BJP might have to defeat the Rawat government, the High Court said the nine rebel Congress legislators have to pay the price of committing the “constitutional sin” of defection by being disqualified.
The disqualification of the nine Congress legislators reduces the strength of the 71-member assembly, which includes one nominated member, to 62. Both the Congress and the BJP have 27 legislators each, while the Progressive Democratic Front, comprising six MLAs from smaller parties as well as Independents, said on Thursday that it continued to support Rawat.
The scenario, at least on paper, favours Rawat to win the trust vote, but BJP National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya insisted that the Rawat government was in a minority and the April 29 floor test would bear this out.
“We aren’t the least bit surprised by the high court verdict,” Vijayvargiya said, pointing to the series of adverse comments the Division Bench had made in its last three hearings on Rawat’s petition, challenging the President’s rule.
Vijayvargiya, BJP President Shah’s pointsperson for Uttarakhand, termed it strange that the court had reinstated Rawat whom the world saw indulging in “horse trading” and which also proved that his government was in a minority. He said several decisions of the Speaker of the Assembly were not according to the rulebook, including his ignoring the demand for a division of votes on March 18 on the passage of the Appropriation Bill and later when he disqualified the rebel Congress legislators half an hour before the Centre’s proclamation of President’s rule in the state. The BJP leader also found it intriguing that the court should have commented on the fate of the nine rebel Congress MLAs, when the case relating to them was pending with a single-judge bench and scheduled to come up for hearing on April 28.
“It is for legal experts to deliberate upon whether the Chief Justice’s comment on the fate of nine Congress rebels was justified or not. It is a moot point whether this statement will prejudice the mind of the single-judge bench,” Vijayvargiya said.
The Congress described the court verdict as a “victory of democracy”. The development emboldened the party to push for a notice in the Rajya Sabha for a resolution to condemn the government over its attempt to destabilise the Uttarakhand government. The government is in a minority in the Rajya Sabha. The session begins on Monday.
Congress spokesperson and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “This judgment teaches and reminds us that those eyeing Himachal Pradesh or Manipur must learn to control their greed and must realise that power is available only through democratic means and not the misuse of Article 356.” After Uttarakhand, the Congress has been alleging that the BJP was attempting to dislodge its governments in Himachal Pradesh and Manipur as well. It lost its government in Arunachal Pradesh, earlier in the year. While celebrations were underway in Dehradun, Rawat said: “We remind you (Modi government) of cooperative federalism you talk about and to request you to let the state do its work.”
AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “This is a huge embarrassment to Modi government. He should stop interfering with elected governments and respect democracy.” The Left parties also slammed the government. Senior ministers and BJP leaders like Shah, Arun Jaitley, Vijayvargiya and others were in consultations to decide the future course of action.
