Uttarakhand HC slams Centre: you introducing chaos, undermining elected govt

The Uttarakhand High Court bench said it was “irrelevant” for the Cabinet to assume disqualification as one of the grounds while recommending President’s rule.

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The court was hearing arguments on ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s petition challenging President’s rule in the state. (Source: PTI)

Rapping it for “introducing chaos”, the Uttarakhand High Court Tuesday questioned the Centre if it was going to look with a “magnifying lens” for an “opportunity” in state assemblies to “impose” President’s rule.

Hearing arguments on ousted Chief Minister Harish Rawat’s petition challenging President’s rule in the state and other related petitions, the bench of Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist asked the Union Government why it was “concerned” about the disqualification of nine Congress MLAs.

The bench said it was “irrelevant” for the Cabinet to assume disqualification as one of the grounds while recommending President’s rule.

“… you are taking away the power of an elected government… you are introducing chaos,” the judges said after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi argued that there can be a floor test after President’s rule which is a “temporary freeze” since it gets over in two months.

“How can be it be a concern of the central government? …the defection of the Congress MLAs. You cannot take a political line. This must be clear,” the bench said.

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“What the Speaker would do on March 27 could not have been divined by the Cabinet on March 26. Assuming that they did divine, it was entirely irrelevant, for the central government to take that decision (to impose President’s rule) because then it would mean that the central government would be accused to be involved in politics,” the bench said, adding “…whether it is Congress or BJP, it is immaterial for us”.

The court said if Presidents took decisions to impose their rule in states by taking note of corruption in the states, then “no state government would last for more than five minutes”.

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“We talk a lot about corruption. But what do we do about it,” the bench remarked.

The court said the reason cited by the Central in the present case, and where two different political parties are at the Centre and state, may lead to a situation where the central government is “watching with a magnifying lens, where there is an opportunity for imposing President’s rule”.

The judges also said that the nine Congress MLAs will have to “pay the price” for defection and that composition was “bound to change” under the “operation of Constitution” due to the anti-defection law, and not because of any “unilateral action” of the ousted Chief Minister.

It also questioned how the central government knew that 35 MLAs would have “actually voted against the government, unless the actual voting took place”.

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During the hearing, senior advocate Harish Salve, counsel for the Governor, said if the Centre has “clinching proof of corruption”, should it allow the floor test to happen or allow a “corrupt and illegal government” to function by remaining a “mute spectator”.

“The Centre cannot be hapless in such a situation and cannot be a mute spectator to blatant slaughter of democracy,” Salve said.

Concluding his arguments, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said a solitary instance is sufficient to impose President’s rule. “Merely because the Governor has allowed a floor test, the President need not give a second chance. When a money Bill fails, then there cannot be another chance. Therefore, the President was not bound to wait,” he said.

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Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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