After the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Kamal Nath-led Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh to respond by Wednesday 10.30 am to a plea by senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking immediate floor test in the Assembly, the MP Congress moved the SC seeking direction to the Centre and the Karnataka Government to grant it the access to its rebel MLAs.
The Congress urged the SC to declare as illegal the action of the Centre, the Karnataka Government and the BJP’s State unit of confining its MLAs in Bengaluru. It also sought a direction for rebel MLAs to participate in the Budget session. The trust vote should be held only in the presence of MLAs, said the plea by Govind Singh, party chief whip in MP.
Earlier, a bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta issued notices to the MP CM, the Speaker and Assembly Principal Secretary and said it will hear the plea of the BJP at 10.30 am on Wednesday. “In view of the urgency of the situation, the notice is made returnable at 10:30 am on March 18,” the SC said.
Former Chief Minister Chouhan and nine BJP MLAs, including the leader of Opposition and BJP’s Chief Whip in the Assembly approached the top court on Monday after the Speaker cited coronavirus concerns and adjourned the House till March 26 without taking the floor test apparently defying the directions of Governor Lalji Tandon.
“We have heard Mukul Rohatgi, senior counsel, along with Mishra Saurabh, Advocate-on-Record, appearing on behalf of the petitioners (Chouhan and others). In view of the urgency of the situation, the notice is made returnable at 10:30 am on 18 March 2020,” the bench said in its order.
The top court allowed Chouhan to serve the notice on the State Government and others “through e-mail in addition to the usual mode of service”.
The court also allowed 16 rebel Congress lawmakers, who have purportedly tendered their resignations to the Speaker, to file an application seeking impleadment as parties to the plea filed by Chouhan.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the rebel Congress MLAs, said that the resignations of six lawmakers, out of 22, have already been accepted and there was no reason for not accepting the resignations of the 16 MLAs.
“Maninder Singh, senior counsel, states that he would be filing an application for impleadment on behalf of the sixteen MLAs who, it is submitted, have tendered their resignations. A copy of the application shall be served on the contesting parties in the same mode as the petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. List the Writ Petition at 10:30 am tomorrow (18 March 2020),” the apex court’s order said.
At the outset, Rohatgi, appearing for the senior BJP leader and three-time Chief Minister, said: “The rationale in this case is that a floor test is required and usually the other side appears in such cases.
“This case represents complete travesty of democracy. The other side deliberately did not appear,” he said referring to the fact that nobody for the Chief Minister and the state government appeared in the court. He said the apex court has in the past heard such a case during night hours and the floor test were ordered.
Taking note of the submissions, the bench said, “We will have to issue a short notice and keep it for Wednesday morning.”