Complicating the legalities around a floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly that former Chief Minister Harish Rawat had to take on Thursday, a Division Bench of the High Court in Nainital, on Wednesday, decided to keep the order on the floor test “in abeyance” till April 6.
The Centre and the Congress had filed special appeals in the High Court over ambiguities in the March 29 order of the court where Mr. Rawat was permitted a floor test on March 31.
While the Central government had approached the court questioning the permission for voting in the Assembly when the State was under President’s Rule, the Congress had approached it questioning the rights of the nine disqualified MLAs to participate in the ballot.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi and his team represented the Central government in court, where he argued that voting could not be allowed since the State was under President’s Rule.
The Congress was represented by Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and his team. Both parties claimed that the court order was in their favour.
Ambiguities in earlier order corrected: BJP
With a Division Bench of the Uttarakhand High Court in Nainital on Wednesday deciding to keep the single judge’s order on the floor test “in abeyance” till April 6, Shyam Jaju, who is the State in-charge of the BJP, said, “There were ambiguities in the order of the single Bench [which allowed Rawat to give floor test on March 31]. The double Bench has corrected that order.”
Projecting the court’s decision as a win for the Congress and a loss for the Central government, Congress in-charge for Uttarakhand Ambika Soni said, “The court heard out our concerns and the time has been extended to April 6 with our consent.”
The decision, given by the double Bench comprising Chief Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice V.K. Bisht, of putting the earlier court order “in abeyance” was taken with the consent of both the parties.
On Wednesday, a single bench of the court postponed to April 1, hearing in the case of the nine rebel Congress MLAs, who had challenged their disqualification.
