Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya on Thursday dissolved the state Assembly with immediate effect, a day after the state cabinet recommended the move to avoid summoning the House before the expiry of the six-month period from the last sitting.
According to a notification issued by Haryana Vidhan Sabha secretariat, the Governor has dissolved the assembly with immediate effect in exercise of the powers conferred under Article 174 (2) (b) of the Constitution of India, which gives the Governor of a state the power to dissolve the state's legislative assembly.
The Haryana cabinet had on Wednesday recommended to Governor Dattatreya to dissolve the Assembly to avoid summoning the House before the expiry of the six-month period from the last sitting.
The term of the current Vidhan Sabha expires on November 3.
After the governor's move to dissolve the assembly, the Nayab Singh Saini government will continue as a caretaker government till a new one is formed, sources said.
Official sources had earlier said that summoning of the House before the end of the six-month period from the last session is a constitutional requirement.
The cabinet move to recommend assembly's dissolution appeared to avert any constitutional crisis.
The Haryana Assembly's last session was held on March 13 when the Saini government had won the trust vote and the next session had to be convened by September 12.
Saini replaced Manohar Lal Khattar as chief minister in March. Khattar is now a Union Minister.
Earlier, the Haryana Cabinet had met here Wednesday evening and accorded approval to a proposal regarding the dissolution of the 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha, an official release had earlier said.
“The proposal will now be sent to the Haryana governor for approval,” it had said.
Polls have already been announced in Haryana which are scheduled to be held on October 5 and the results are slated to be out on October 8.
The government has been summoning the monsoon session in August, mostly after Independence Day. However, polls were announced on August 16 after which the government did not summon a session.
In the 90-member Assembly, which has been dissolved now, the present strength of ruling BJP members was 41 including the Speaker, Congress 28, JJP 6, Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal 1 member each, Independents 4, while 9 seats are vacant.
Among the nine seats, while seven fell vacant as legislators across parties resigned after joining other outfits, Badshahpur seat is vacant after Rakesh Daulatabad, Independent MLA representing the seat died in May while Mulana seat is lying vacant after Congress' Varun Chaudhary, who represented it, fought parliamentary polls and got elected from Ambala.
