COURT CORRECTION
Prez rule spiked; Rawat back as U’khand CM
In a stinging blow to the Modi sarkar, the Uttarakhand High Court has set aside the Presidential proclamation dismissing the Harish Rawat government. A division bench comprising chief justice KM Joseph and justice V K Bisht allowed former chief minister Harish Rawat’s petition and said :“Proclamation (of the central government imposing President’s rule) stands quashed…. Elected state government will revive… Petition must succeed.”
On March 27th, the Modi sarkar had brought the hill state under central rule citing “governance breakdown” after nine Congress lawmakers rebelled against Rawat. The decision to impose central rule came 36 hours before Rawat was scheduled to take a floor test in the assembly.
It is for the first time in the history of independent India that an elected state government dismissed under Art.356 has been brought back to life by a court order.
In the past there have been instances of the courts quashing the decision to impose president’s rule, but the dismissed state government could not be revived, as by the time the courts came to that
It is for the first time in the history of independent India that an elected state government dismissed under Art.356 has been brought back to life by a court order.
conclusion unalterable changes had taken place.
The court was apprehensive that the central government may revoke the president’s rule even before it comes to a decision on the deposed chief minister’s petition. It had observed that the Centre cannot “play with the court”, after the lawyers representing the Union government maintained silence over possibility of the revocation of President’s rule in the state. This could have saved the Modi sarkar some embarrassment, but the court effectively blocked that route.
The court order says: “In the present case…article 356 (imposition of President’s rule) has been imposed contrary to the law laid down by the apex court…The status quo of State government is restored …The government would go under go floor test on April 29th.”
This sums up the three essential features of the verdict -- quashing the president’s rule, restoring the status quo ante, and setting a date for the floor test. The final verdict is in sync with the pattern of the hearing in the last few days, and the judges were fierce in their criticism of the Centre, emphasizing that President's Rule "should be used as a matter of last resort," and that the removal of "a democratically elected government breeds cynicism in the heart of citizens". “When the government takes action under Article 356 of the Constitution, it is expected to be non-partisan, it cannot have any kind of bias, but we do not see it here,” the bench said. The high court also ruled that the disqualification of the nine rebel MLAs by the speaker under the anti-defection law was no material for imposition of President’s rule. In yet another stinker, the court observed that the fate of the rebel Congress MLAs was an extraneous matter and it was a constitutional sin to defect:“If a defection has taken place, they have to pay for the sin by disqualification.” Forgive and forget: Rawat: A triumphant, Harish Rawat, however, struck a very conciliatory note after the verdict restored his government. "We don't want to fight...They are powerful, mighty and broad-chest(ed). We do not talk of fighting, but talk of cooperation. I would request the Centre to forget the past and work in the spirit of cooperative federalism. Uttarakhand has got justice... This is a victory of people of Uttarakhand. We welcome the verdict. The whole country knows who was behind the political instability in the state," he said addressing a press conference. His colleagues have been told to let go off the bitterness and work together to take the state forward on the path of development, Rawat said. After the disqualification of the nine rebel MLAs, Rawat looks confident of sailing past the half way mark in the state assembly that now has an effective strength of 62, and with 26 Congress MLAs, and some unattached legislators, he should make it safely. Commenting on the high court’s verdict, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Mani Singhvi said that those who have been looking at Himachal Pradesh and Manipur with greedy eyes have been halted in their tracks.“We are confident that this deplorable process of devaluing the democracy and destroying the federalism has been arrested by this judgment,” said Singhvi who represented Rawat in this case and made out all the arguments against the decision to impose president’s rule. Narrating the sequence of events, Singhvi said:“Now let me tell that the whole edifice of the Central Government invoking Article 356 was that 35 out of 68 MLAs demanded Division on 18th. That edifice was not existent because only 27 MLAs signed a Memorandum of the BJP. Those 9 MLAs did not sign till they were sent a second memorandum at 11.30 pm in the night after the Floor Test was over, after the voting was over”. Apology sought from PM, Shah: Commenting on the verdict, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said:"This is a victory for the people of Uttarakhand, democracy and constitutional norms. This is also a slap on the face of those in the BJP who sought to dislodge an elected government, elected with the mandate of people in Uttarakhand." "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will be well advised to now tender an unconditional apology to the nation and also to the people of Uttarakhand for trampling upon democracy, murdering constitution norms and subjugating the will of people in their blind quest to dislodge Congress governments. We welcome the verdict," the Congress leader said. Centre to move SC today: Even though the High Court verdict was based on the earlier decisions of the Supreme Court, the central government will take its case to the apex court on Friday. Tomorrow morning, it (the central government) will take its case to the Supreme Court, said Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. The strategy for the Supreme Court appeal was finalized at a meeting of the BJP's top leaders at the home of party president Amit Shah. In attendance were Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who returned this afternoon from New York, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and top lawyer Harish Salve. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has said that the government's lawyers were not wellprepared in court. In the top court, the Centre is likely to press the argument that Rawat's own party men voted against him when he presented the budget, and that it was eventually passed in violation of legislature rules. This contention was rejected by the High Court, but the Centre hopes to establish it as grounds for the constitutional crisis it declared when it established President's Rule.