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Supreme Court orders Chief Minister Kamal Nath to face floor test tomorrow, orders trust vote to be videographed
The apex court’s verdict is in response to a BJP petition seeking court’s intervention in for holding a trust vote in the assembly alleging the Kamal Nath government had lost the majority and was delaying a floor test purposefully.
Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh has been asked to prove its majority on Friday in a floor test by the Supreme Court. The court directed that voting for the floor test is held by a show of hands and the proceedings end by 5 pm. It also asked the entire day’s action in the assembly to be videographed.
The SC bench hearing the petition also said that if the 16 rebel MLAs wanted to attend the floor test, then they should be provided ample security by Karnataka and MP police personnel.
The apex court’s verdict is in response to a BJP petition seeking court’s intervention in for holding a trust vote in the assembly alleging the Kamal Nath government had lost the majority and was delaying a floor test purposefully.
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The congress had opposed the trust vote and claimed that 22 MLAs of the ruling party who had resigned were being held captive in the BJP ruled State of Karnataka and therefore not in a position to cast their votes without bias. The Congress had claimed that the resignations had been forced and the MLAs had not acted as per their free will.
The Supreme Court said that the Friday session of the assembly shall be about a single agenda - to decide whether the government enjoys majority.
The Madhya Pradesh speaker has accepted resignations of six MLAs out of the 22 who quit citing allegiance to BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindhia who recently quit the Congress to join the BJP.
The Supreme Court ordered the test despite the speaker not having taken a decision to either accept resignations of the remaining 16 rebel Congress MLAs or to disqualify them.
The Supreme Court had said on Wednesday that it wanted legislatures to decide who enjoys the trust.
PTI reported that the apex court earlier today suggested that MP assembly speaker NP Prajapati could ascertain if the rebel MLAs were in captivity or residing in Bengaluru on their own free will by speaking to them over a video link. The court also offered to appoint an observer but it was refused by the speaker.
“We can appoint an observer to Bengaluru or some other place so that the rebel MLAs can connect with the Speaker through video conferencing after which he can decide,” PTI quoted the bench as saying.
Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is representing the Speaker is reported to have told the court that issuing a time-bound direction to the Speaker could be legally problematic.
The court is reported to have said that there was no restraint on holding trust vote because of resignation or disqualification being pending before the Speaker.