The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Uttarakhand High Court order that set aside the President’s Rule and allowed Harish Rawat to prove his majority by facing a floor test on April 29.
The apex court revived President’ Rule till April 27 and took exception to the high court for not delivering a written judgment in the case. The high court was asked to prepare a copy of the judgment by Tuesday and give it to the relevant parties so that apex court can examine it.
Earlier on Friday, the central government moved the Supreme Court against the High Court judgement setting aside the President’s Rule in Uttarakhand.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the matter in the Chief Justice’s court, seeking an urgent listing of the appeal. However, Justice Dipak Misra, sitting in the Chief Justice’s court, said the appeal will be placed before the Chief Justice to take a call on when to list the matter. The CJI was not available in the court since he is presiding over a conference on chief justices of high courts.
During the mentioning, Rohatgi complained that the High Court order has not been made available but it is being sought to be acted upon.
In its appeal, the Centre said the High Court has limited power of judicial review and couldn’t have substituted President’s satisfaction with its own. The government also said the court couldn’t have gone into authenticity and justifiability of the advice by council of ministers and the President’s rule.
Justice Misra said he would only ask the registry to place the Centre’s appeal before the CJI, who is the administrative head for deciding on listing of the cases.
Meanwhile, disqualified MLAs have also challenged the HC decision to keep them out of voting during the floor test.