This refers to news reports about a ‘composite floor test’ for the Uttarakhand Assembly, as was directed by the apex court in 2005 in Jharkhand. The procedure for selection/removal of a Chief Minister should be in tune with the Supreme Court’s verdict of the Uttar Pradesh Government (Kalyan Singh vs Jagdambika Pal), where the State Assembly elected a Chief Minister through secret voting on the floor of the House.
A system should be formulated in which the Chief Minister may be simultaneously elected with Speakers and Deputy Speakers by secret and compulsory voting on nominations signed by at least 34 per cent of members of the lower House through EVMs.
Members not participating in such a democratic process should lose the voting right, while retaining the membership of the House. Such elected persons may only be removed by the same process, but with the compulsion of naming an alternate nominee in the same motion. Voting on any such no-confidence motion should be done on priority say within a week of submitting the duly signed motion at the secretariat.