Supreme Court Has also Disqualified Nine Legislators

Harish Rawat

There are 71 assembly constituency seats in Uttarakhand . High Court gave a strict verdict banning 9 M.L.A.s to give their vote in Uttarakhand power-display. So now, there are 62 seats. The governor will be excluded. Thus, there are 61 to prove.

Term	Number
Seats	71
The Governor	01
	70
BJP	28
Congress	27
PDF Alliance Parties
BSP	02
Uttarakhand Kranti Dal	01
Independent	03
Total	06

 BJP and Congress hope positive result. But congress is guessing a game behind door against BJP.

Verdict of Uttarakhand High Court
Floor Test	Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on 10th May
Result	10.30 a.m. on 11th May
Umpire	Principal Secretary, Legislative Assembly
9 Congress MLAs	Disqualified by the Speaker

The Speaker	Givind Singh Kunjwal
Attorney General	Mukul Rohtagi

Uttarakhand High Court criticized the Centre for the decision to impose President’s rule which could break the strength of federalism. It was the Appropriation Bill, a Money Bill, for which nine Congress M.L.A.s went against their party and sided with BJP. Generally when Money Bill is defeated, government submits resignation. The wish to impose President’s Rule by BJP was denied by the Court. The Court said, “If this is allowed, it could result in undue interference of central government into affairs of state legislature and unwarranted imposition of President’s Rule.”

Nine MLAs appealed before the Uttarakhand High Court against the speaker’s decision to disqualify them. Justice UC Dhyani said on 9^th May, “ Writ petition is dismissed.”  Nine legislators had been barred from participating in confidence test on 10^th May.

Verdict by the Supreme Court:-

After being rejected, nine MLAs have approached for an urgent hearing in Supreme Court. All eyes are now fixed towards the announcement of Judgement by the Supreme Court. Supreme Court has also mandated that nine MLAs are disqualified. Thus they are ineligible to cast their votes in floor test. Harish Rawat will certainly be smilling heartily to see the same verdict as passed yesterday in Uttarakhand High Court. He has to prove majority tomorrow. The The two hours floor test will be video-graphed and the result will be sent to court.

Updated  on 10th May:-

Floor Test:-

The presidential rule was in abeyance for two and a half hours from 10.30 a.m. on 10^th May. The full process was visually recorded. The Principal Secretary of Legislative Assembly and Parliamentary Affairs was in charge to observe the proceedings of the Uttarakhand floor test. The proper authority was asked to have submitted the confidence vote on 11^th May in a sealed envelope to the Supreme Court.

All Parties are Confident about Confidence-Vote:-

Harish Rawat said,”Uttarakhand will win,” before the confidence vote started.  He said,”The cloud of uncertainty of Uttarakhand will disappear tomorrow,” after casting his vote. "We're in complete majority. We have numbers. We'll prove majority," said congress leader Indira Hridayesh.BSP supremo Mayabati  said that her party had decided to align with Congress before the starting trust vote. Independent MLA Harish Chandra Durgapal believed that all six Progressive Democratic Front MLAs voted for Congress. BJP leader Ganesh Joshi believed that it was a constitutional victory for BJP because of the support of nine Congress MLAs in the past. He added that an MLA of Congress supported BJP even in the floor test.

Confusion:-

Congress MLA Rekha Arya voted for BJP while BJP MLA Bhim Lal Arya voted for Congress. So there is a confusion about the result because of BJP and Congress MLAs. BJP and Congress complained against each other alleging a foul game. We have to wait till Wednesday.

Why Disqualified:-

Nine MLAs from Congress revolted against Congress Government over Appropriation Bill( a Money Bill) . This happened during a debate in Budget Session on 18^th March. There was Vijay Bahuguna, the former Chief Minister , in the rebel MLAs group.

On 27^th March, the Centre imposed President’s Rule in Uttarakhand on the issue of losing majority by Harish Rawat Government in Uttarakhand as nine Congress legislators rebelled against the government. The speaker, then, disqualified them under the Anti-Defection Law.

Result:- The Court says finally the result of Uttarakhand Floor Test that Harish Rawat has received majority with 33 votes. The Centre has decided to withdraw Presidential Rule as the result was published.