MP crisis: Congress, BJP spar over Governor's power on floor test

Madhya Pradesh Congress party and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday sparred over the role and powers of the Governor in the Supreme Court which ordered floor test tomorrow on whether the Kamal Nath-led government enjoyed majority in the Assembly.

A battery of senior lawyers led by Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi and Vivek Tankha, who represented Chief Minister Kamal Nath, Speaker N P Prajapati and the state government respectively, assailed the directions of the Governor ordering floor tests in view of tendering of resignations by 22 rebel MLAs.

They alleged that the governor has no authority to order when the assembly is running.

 

On the other hand, Solcitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Goveror Lalji Tandon and senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Maninder Singh, representing Chouhan and 16 rebel Congress MLAs respectively, strongly defended the Governor's direction.

Referring to various apex court judgements including in the S R Bommai's case, Rohatgi said the Governor has all the power to make a "tentative opinion" that the government has lost the majority after the resignations of MLAs and there was no infirmity if the government was asked to undertake the floor test.

Singhvi, appearing for the Speaker, said the day court begins to give time-bound direction to the Speaker, it will be constitutionally problematic.

Mehta, appearing for Governor Lalji Tandon, told the bench that Nath was "sitting aside" in the turn of events and it is the Speaker who is "leading the political battle" in court.

The bench asked all the parties as to how does the decision of a Speaker in matters of resignation and disqualification of MLAs affect the floor test.

It said the constitutional principle which emerges is that there is no restraint on trust vote because of resignation or disqualification being pending before the Speaker. It said, therefore, the court will have to flip around and see whether the Governor acted beyond the powers vested in him.

During the hearing, the bench said that if the government loses the majority when the Assembly was not in session, then Governor has the power to direct the Speaker to summon the Assembly.

"What happens when the assembly prorogues and the government loses its majority, then the Governor can call the Assembly," the bench said.

Singhvi said the Governor has very limited power with regard to functioning of the Assembly and he can only summon, prorogue and dissolve the House, but he cannot intervene into the functioning of assembly which falls under the purview of the speaker.

The Governor cannot ask the Speaker that you should do this, you should not do this, it is beyond his power, he said.

However, he added, the Governor has the right to summon the House but it cannot decide the functioning of the House.

Singhvi said that the plea has been filed by the BJP leader was "an attempt to short circuit the discretion of speaker's very large power to deal with resignation and disqualification of MLAs."

"By simply chanting the 'mantra' of floor test-floor test the power of the speaker can't be short circuited. I would say even the apex court does not have the power to intervene in the discretionary powers of the speaker."

Abstention of so called rebel MLAs brings down the number for the majority mark and this is the 'jugad', he said.

"If Speaker disqualifies MLAs then they cannot become the minister and taking moral high ground adds salt to the wound as it amounted committing constitutional sin," he said.

"You are engineering the change in the government by committing the Constitutional sin and my Lords are allowing that," he said.

Suppose the Speaker rejects the resignations then the MLAs are bound by the whip," the bench said, adding, "granting times for weeks are gold mines of horse trading...Why is the court has been saying that the hold the floor test. The idea is to hold the floor test as early as possible."

The bench asked the speaker hat he should decide on the resignations on the basis of papers before them and they should not be delaying it.

"I am not ceding my right. I am required to conduct an enquiry in view of the allegations that MLAs are held in captivity. There are inference of captivity, coercion and threats being exerted on MLAs," Singhvi said.

On the power of Governor, the bench said, "if the house is not on session and if the government loses the majority then the Governor has the power to direct the speaker to hold the trust vote."

"What happens when the assembly is prorogued and a government loses its majority? Cannot the Governor then call the assembly? Since not allowing this would mean a government in minority to continue," the bench asked.

He defended the adjournment on the ground of coronavirus scare and said the assemblies of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala have been adjourned due to the virus outbreak.

"This is a very unique case because of two facts that nobody has claimed before the Governor that it has the majority. This is the first case in India when Governor is asking floor test when the assembly is in session," Sibal said.