SC intervenes in Jharkhand, tells House to vote tomorrow

Earlier in the day, Soren and his Cabinet met in Ranchi and decided to recommend to the Governor the appointment of Alfred George de Rozario as an Anglo-Indian MLA. It was clearly a bid to push up the UPA numbers for the floor test.

Indicating that it strongly disapproved the manner in which the Soren government had been sworn in, a three-judge SC bench, comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice D M Dharmadhikari said, ‘‘if what is stated in the petition filed by (Arjun) Munda is true, then it is a total fraud on the Constitution.’’

The bench said it was passing the interim order as Munda, who moved the court against Razi’s decision to let Soren form the government, has a ‘‘strong prima facie case’’.

Sending out a clear signal that it would keep an eye on the floor test, the bench ordered that the proceedings be videographed. ‘‘Any disturbance during the floor test would be viewed seriously.’’

The bench also directed that the pro-tem speaker—Pradeep Balmuchu of the Congress will be conducting the floor test—report the outcome faithfully to the court. Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary and DGP were told to ensure that all MLAs attend the Assembly and cast their votes safely, freely and securely.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for petitioner Arjun Munda, contended that actions of the Governor in appointing Soren as Chief Minister, appointing a pro-tem speaker and nominating an Anglo-Indian member to the House were malafide.

As per convention, the seniormost member of the Assembly is made pro-tem speaker. But in the present case, a junior member had been made pro-tem speaker, Rohatgi said.

According to him, nomination of an Anglo-Indian MLA before the floor test could tilt the balance in favour of the UPA. This, he said, was a case of total subversion. He also pointed out that the UPA government had been given five days—from March 10 to March 15— for ‘‘horse-trading.’’

Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the respondents, contended that Munda’s allegations were ‘‘assumptions’’ and the plea of the petitioner to appoint an observer for the floor test was not warranted.

‘‘The court would not like Parliament to appoint an observer to watch the hearing in a case,’’ Singhvi said and tried to defend the actions of the Governor. At this, the bench remarked: ‘‘The action of the Governor had bothered the President and he summoned him. How can we shut our eyes to all that’s happening?’’ The bench said that its interim order should be treated as notice for convening the Assembly.

In Ranchi, the SC order was seen as a big setback for the Soren government. Political circles debated whether the SC snub would make the Governor put in his papers. Those close to Razi maintained that he may step down since ‘‘he’s a man with a sense of self-respect.’’ The Governor himself was in Lucknow on a private visit.

Trying to push its numbers, the UPA government today invoked the state Assembly Act which empowers the government to nominate a member of the Anglo-Indian community as an MLA.

Asked about the objective of the move, Soren looked the other way but his deputy Stephen Marandi replied that the UPA was ‘‘under pressure from its Anglo-Indian supporters.’’

‘‘The Vajpayee government at the Centre and the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar had set the precedence by nominating Anglo-Indian MLAs. Our Anglo-Indian friends asked us why we were not doing it. So we took the decision,’’ Marandi said.

But the move backfired after the Supreme Court stayed the nomination till the floor test. Earlier, before the court’s interim order, the Soren government outlined the schedule for the Assembly business: the pro-tem speaker would administer the oath of office to MLAs on March 10, election of the speaker on March 11, Governor’s address on March 14 and Soren’s vote of confidence on March 15.

With the SC order making all this redundant, pro-tem speaker Pradeep Balmuchu will now have to administer oath of office to the MLAs tomorrow and conduct the floor test on Friday.

Meanwhile, Ravi Shankar Mazumdar, a senior practising advocate of the Jharkhand High Court, has been appointed Advocate-General of the state by the Soren government.