Courts keeping a check!

Time Line
• March 18: 9 rebel Cong MLAs join BJP’s demand vote on Appropriation Bill. Speaker adjourns assembly, claims Bill passed by voice vote
• March 19: Governor ask Rawat to seek trust vote on March 28. Speaker issues notice to rebels
• March 26: Sting video shows CM Rawat offering money to rebels. Governor sends report to Centre. Union cabinet recommends Central rule
• March 27: President approves Central rule. Speaker formally disqualifies rebels
• March 28: Cong moves HC against imposition of President’s Rule
• April 20: Uttarakhand HC slams Centre, says it was acting like a ‘private company’
• April 21: Uttarakhand HC quashes President’s Rule in Uttarakhand. Orders floor test in Assembly
• April 28 : Supreme Court says there would not be any floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly on April 29, as directed by the state High Court, extending the stay on the HC ruling.
The trouble may not be over for ousted Chief Minister of Uttrakhand Harish Rawat,High Court observations brought a smile back on his face, and many other chief ministers who have been alleging that the Narendra Modi led government at the Centre have been interfering in their working. Within one week the Supreme Court allowed the continuation of President’s rule while deciding to continue the hearing, celebration of victory by BJP is too premature.
When the parliament of India was reconvened, the Congress party forced adjournment in Rajya Sabha (the upper house). Harish Rawat has none to blame but himself for being unable to rein in dissident legislative Assembly members in his own party, the Congress. To top it all, Rawat was caught on the wrong side in a sting operation conducted by a television news channel. Dissent to defection happened when the other party lures the members to its side.
Last week, while hearing the arguments on the petition filed by Rawat challenging the Centre’s decision to invoke President’s rule, the Division Bench of the High Court in Nainital lashed out at the Centre for introducing chaos and asked whether the Central government was looking through a magnifying glass for opportunities to impose Presidents Rule in other states as well. As the matter was raised in Rajya Sabha, Justifying imposition of central rule in the state, leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the real breakdown of constitutional machinery happened in Uttarakhand when the presiding officer Speaker ignored the vote of35 out of 67 members against the appropriation bill to declare it passed. It appears that ArunJaitley had not taken any serious notice of the observations made by the High Court.
While the High court made observations while hearing the case of the hill state of Uttrakhand, it sent strong message to the government at the Centre and highlighted the state of the political affairs in India. Similar observations were made by Supreme Court. The Supreme Court asked if the disqualification of legislators was a genuine ground for imposition of President’s rule. High Court was tougher in its observations. It said that defection by few elected representatives alone could not be the ground on which the Centre can invoke President’s rule and warned that if the Presidents were to use Article 356 on the basis of corruption, then no state government would stay in power for more than five minutes. A strong observation that could make apolitical leader feels feeble. However, BJP and its leaders in the Centre have been using all their vocal forces to press their point, unjustified though.
The courts also raised concern over the intent of the Central Government. It reprimanded the Centre for toppling a democratically-elected government in its last year of working and said,” Can you topple a democratically-elected government in its fifth year?” The High court also tried inducing some sense in Modi government that is trying its best to achieve its electoral goal of “Congress Mukt Bharat”- The India without Congress. The High Court reminded that it’s the Governor that must call the shots. “It is the Governor who must call the shots. He is not an agent of the Central government, and a non-partisan person. What was the hurry to impose President Rule? He had taken a call to ask for a floor test,” the High Court observed. BJP’s act of imposing the President’s rule just one day before the trust vote in Uttrakhand faced flak from all the corners, and High Court was not in a mood to spare the Modi government.
While the High Court had already expressed concern over the conduct of the government at the Centre, It reminded the ruling BJP at Centre of the clear demarcation that should exist between the ruling party and its role as a government. The High Court told the Attorney General, “What is passing through our mind is thatis it the lookout of the Central government as to what would have happened on 28March (when floor test was to be held) in view of the changed composition and in view of the nine disqualified rebel MLAs? Will it not be totally extraneous for the Central government, which is ruled by another political party, to be concerned by the changed composition? The saga at Uttrakhand and subsequent observations by High Court and the Supreme Court of India prove that there is a great difference in the intent of Modi government and what it ultimately ends up doing. On one side, it talks of “Co-operative federalism,” and on the other hand its gets rightly reprimanded for interfering with the working of the states.