SC directs Nath to face floor test by 5pm today Chief Minister to seek legal options to decide future course of action
Delivering a jolt to the 15month-old Kamal Nath government, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed it to face a floor test by 5 pm on Friday and left it to the 16 rebel Congress MLAs, lodged in a resort in Bengaluru, to take a call on participating in the trust vote.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath who convened the Congress Legislature Party meeting here late in the evening to take stock of the situation in view of the court verdict, told reporters that he would seek legal opinion to decide his future course of action.
Delivering its verdict on the vexed issue, a division bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta asked the Madhya Pradesh Assembly to reconvene for the trust vote and hold it by 5 pm on Friday. The Assembly had been adjourned on March 16 for 10 days “due to the coronavirus outbreak”.
The court held that the floor test should be decided by a show of hands by MLAs in the House and ordered that entire exercise be videographed to maintain transparency.
While leaving it to the 16 rebel Congress MLAs, who hold the key to the survival of the Kamal
Nath government, to decide if they would take part in the floor test or not, the bench directed the directors-general of police of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to ensure their security if they wanted to come to the Assembly (to vote).
The verdict was on the lines of the recent directive by Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon to Chief Minister Kamal Nath to face a floor test in the Assembly to prove his majority after 22 Congress MLAs resigned recently.
The judgment, which followed a two-day hearing in the case, was billed to end the week-long political crisis in MP triggered by the resignation of veteran leader Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Congress to join the BJP, and subsequent resignation of 22 Congress legislators loyal to him.
Earlier, Assembly Speaker N.P. Prajapati in a petition filed in the Supreme Court sought two weeks’ time to take a decision on resignation of the 16 rebel MLAs.
The bench, while disposing of the petition along with other applications on the issue filed by different people, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, however, shot down the Speaker’s plea and left it to the MLAs to exercise their choice.
Hailing the verdict,
Chouhan said the Kamal Nath government would fail in the floor test, paving the way for the formation of a new BJP government in the state.
He said the Kamal Nath government was reduced to a minority after 22 Congress MLAs resigned from the House, and it had dishonoured the directive by the Governor to face a floor test twice recently.
“The ruling Congress had resorted to all kinds to tricks available to save its government in the state. The rebel Congress MLAs were terrorised by the Congress leaders to force them to support the Kamal Nath government”, Chouhan alleged.
“The SC verdict has vindicated our stand that the Kamal Nath government has lost its majority. We will stake our claim to form the government after the fall of the Kamal Nath government in the floor test”, BJP chief whip in the Assembly Narottam Mishra said.