E-Paper
Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath to face floor test today
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Madhya Pradesh government led by chief minister Kamal Nath to prove its majority on the floor of the state assembly on Friday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Madhya Pradesh government led by chief minister Kamal Nath to prove its majority on the floor of the state assembly on Friday, a course of action it chose to adopt without waiting for the speaker to take a call on the resignations of 16 rebel MLAs of the Congress.
A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta advanced the meeting of the assembly from March 26 to March 20, effectively setting aside the direction of speaker NP Prajapati who, on Monday, adjourned the house until March 26.
“The session of the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly which has been deferred to 26 March, 2020 shall be reconvened on 20 March, 2020. The meeting to be convened shall be confined to a single agenda, namely, whether the government of the incumbent chief minister continues to enjoy the confidence of the House,” the top court said.
It directed that the floor test be conducted by a show of hands and the proceedings be videotaped.
The court said the 16 rebel MLAs, who the Congress party alleges have been held hostage by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengaluru, are free to attend and take part in the floor test. If they choose to do so, their security will have to be ensured by the Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh police, the court said.
“The director general of police, Karnataka as well as the director general of police, Madhya Pradesh shall ensure that there shall be no restraint or hindrance whatsoever on any of the 16 MLAs taking recourse to their rights and liberties as citizens. In the event that they or any of them opt to attend the session of the legislative assembly, arrangements for their security shall be provided by all the concerned authorities,” the order said.
The court set a deadline of 5pm on Friday to conclude the floor test proceedings.
Without saying that he is ready to face a floor test on Friday, chief minister Kamal Nath said: “We will study every aspect of the Supreme Court judgment, have a discussion with legal experts, seek advice and then take a decision based on the same.” The assembly secretariat till late Thursday night had not informed the legislators about the session on Friday.
On Wednesday, the court asked the speaker to inform the bench about when he can decide on the resignation letters submitted by the 16 rebel lawmakers of the Congress. The speaker told the court on Thursday that he will decide on them within two weeks, but the apex court eventually decided to go ahead without waiting for the speaker’s decision.
The BJP welcomed the order of the Supreme Court. “The politics of lure and pressure has been defeated. Injustice has been defeated,” BJP national vice-president and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said. “The floor test will prove that the Congress government is a minority government and it will lead to the formation of a new government. The Congress government betrayed people. Middlemen and mafia, whether they are transport mafia, sand mafia or transfer mafia, ruled the roost.”
The Supreme Court was hearing two petitions, one filed by 10 BJP MLAs seeking an immediate floor test in the Madhya Pradesh assembly and the other by the Congress alleging that 16 of its MLAs are being held captive by the BJP in Karnataka.
The Kamal Nath government’s problems began last week after 22 MLAs resigned from the assembly in the wake of former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia ending his 18-year association with the Congress and joining the BJP. The speaker has accepted the resignations of six members, bringing the strength of the House to 222, with the majority mark at 112.
Before the crisis, the Congress had 114 MLAs, and enjoyed the support of four independent legislators, two MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one legislator of the Samajwadi Party. The BJP has 107 MLAs.
Madhya Pradesh governor Lalji Tandon had written to the chief minister on March 14 directing that a floor test be held on March 16 to decide whether the Congress government has a majority. When the House was convened on March 16, the speaker adjourned it until March 26, citing the coronavirus threat, without holding a floor test.
Ten BJP MLAs led by Chouhan then rushed to the apex court submitting that the Kamal Nath government has lost a majority and does not have the moral, legal or constitutional right to remain in power. The Congress, in a counter- petition, argued that a floor test can take place only when all the elected lawmakers are present in the assembly.
It was the Congress’s case that if the 22 MLAs had resigned, a floor test could not be held with those seats vacant as the electorate of those constituencies, which will come to almost 10 per cent of the total seats, would go unrepresented. Such a trust vote, it contended, would be a “complete sham” and “antithetical to the principle of representative democracy”.
Senior advocates AM Singhvi and Kapil Sibal, appearing for the speaker and the chief minister respectively, told the court on Thursday that the governor cannot order the assembly to be convened when the House is already in session. It was their case that the governor can step in only when the House is not in session.
“When the House is not in session, then the governor is the constitutional authority to be approached for seeking a special session. But there has never been a case where governor seeks a floor test when the House is in session, never,” Sibal argued.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Chouhan and other BJP MLAs, rebutted this argument. He submitted that in the 1994 case of SR Bommai vs Union of India, the governor had exercised his powers when the assembly was in session. He also opposed the MP speaker’s request for two weeks’ time to take a decision on the resignation letters.
“They are asking for two weeks so that they can horse trade,” Rohatgi claimed.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta also stressed the need for an immediate floor test to avoid horse trading.
“Every passing day makes a difference,” Mehta told the court.
