Price of Confusion
Pampered for long by the elected governments, the bureaucrats landed in hard days under the President’s Rule. For instance, a senior IAS officer was summoned from Rajbhawan after he failed to turn up at a meeting chaired by the Governor. Probe found that two meetings being scheduled for the day, one was cancelled telephonically. In general, the babus do not condescend to receive calls. Their PAs do such things for them. But in this case, a fourth class staff received the call.
Problem cropped up as he could not understand the drift of the message. He was confused over which one of the meetings was cancelled. Thus befuddled, he told the PA that all the meetings of the day were cancelled. Relieved, the babu did not turn up. However, he sprang up after he received the Governor’s summon. He readied a letter seeking apology.
To become doubly sure that he would not face consequences, he conveyed his verbal apology too, explaining the reason behind his absence at the meeting. Though not inclined to brook such indiscipline on the part of the officers, the Governor accepted that confusion was what led to his remaining absent. The babu was spared. But a question remains- when a meeting is called through letters why the cancellation is not intimated in black and white too.
Riddle of Ten Days
One important question regarding the status of the Appropriation Bill has remained unanswered despite the debate over it dragging for days in the political realm as well as the court. Contravening the well-defined rules, the bill was sent to the Governor on March 28-a day after the President’s Rule was imposed-despite the bill being supposed to have been passed on the fateful evening of March 18 when slugfest rocked the House.
As per the Vidhan Sabha proceeding rule 129, the bill after being tabled in the House must be sent promptly to the Governor by a special messenger. However, in this case, it took as many as 10 days for the copy to reach Rajbhwan. To blunt the charge leveled by the lawyers pleading the case on behalf of the deposed Chief Minister Harish Rawat, those representing the Centre insisted in the court that the fact of the bill not reaching the Governor had precipitated the constitutional crisis that culminated in the imposition of the Central rule.
Union Government argued through its lawyers that it was a pretty serious issue, fraught with immense constitutional import for the state. The drift of the argument was that as per the Constitution, not a single penny could be spent, sans permission of the House.
Thus, things remaining murky over the passing of the bill in consonance with the constitutional norms, the Centre had no other option but to invoke Article 356 and pass the vote on account to help the state meet the day-to-day expenses for the next four months.
Even after the President’s Rule is revoked and the status quo preceding it is restored, the question as to why the copy of the bill as ‘passed’ in the Assembly was sent to the Governor 10 days after it was ‘passed’ would never cease intriguing the curious.