Apex court pours cold water on Congress plan
The Supreme Court has done well to have stayed the Uttarakhand High Court's verdict which had set aside President's Rule and restored the dislodged Harish Rawat Government. Hopefully, by Wednesday, until when the stay is applicable, there will be more clarity on the many issues that have contributed to the State's political crisis. The apex court will thereafter proceed with the matter and offer a final verdict at some stage though one does not know when that will come about. In asking the Centre not to disturb the President's Rule status until Wednesday at least, the court has sent the message that it is not eager to see more complications and confusion in what is already a knotty issue of both law and politics. While one has to wait and see the apex court's final position, the stay on the High Court's Thursday ruling came on a petition filed by the Centre challenging the High Court's order which had quashed President's Rule and restored the Congress-led Government in the State despite the established impression that the Rawat regime had lost the trust of a majority in the House. It would be premature to jump to conclusions on the legal rights and wrongs involved, but clearly the High Court seemed not to have taken a holistic view of the crisis in the State. It had set aside President's Rule but decided nothing on the other developments that were inter-linked to the Central rule, such as the opposition of nine of the ruling party's legislators to a money Bill; the Speaker's refusal of a majority demand for a division in passing the money Bill; and the contested disqualification of these MlAs by the Speaker of the Assembly before a trust vote was to be taken by the Rawat Government. The rebel Congress legislators have knocked on the High Court's door and their grievance remains unaddressed. In the absence of a finality (or even interim orders) on matters that have a direct bearing on the larger situation, it was inappropriate of the High Court to select one element of the case and judge on it.
The Supreme Court's ruling on Friday ensured that the Congress's celebration was short-lived. The Congress ought to have exercised caution, knowing that the issue had been far from legally settled and that the apex court could well pour cold water on their plans. But the party, eager to latch on to the smallest victories, went in a celebratory mode soon after the High Court's order on Thursday. Harish Rawat, Chief Minister for 24 hours thereafter, before he was brought crashing down, even held Cabinet meetings, with the Government taking important decisions. Until 24 hours ago, Congress leaders, both in Uttarakhand and in New Delhi, had been projecting their ‘triumph' as a victory for democracy; some of their allies even demanded an ‘apology' from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Narendra Modi Government for having ‘subverted' the federal structure of the Constitution.
There is one important message in the drama that has been played out since Uttarakhand plunged into a political crisis, and it is that the Centre has to be extremely careful in imposing President's Rule in States. The Modi Government will certainly legally defend its position, but that apart, it must not make President's Rule the norm in the days to come.