Pained by the centre's behaviour- High court
The uttarakhand high court has today expressed its anger over the centre’s move to impose President rule in the state- “More than angry, we are pained that you are behaving like this. That the highest authority - the Government of India - behaves like this. How can you think of playing with the court,” said the court while hearing the petition of present chief minister Harish Rawat. Court has also questioned the behavior of the central government which has been imposing a President’s rule, only to allow someone else to form the government. The court has asked the counsel of government whether he could give assurance to the court that the centre would wait for the verdict of High court without evoking the President’s rule. When the counsel was unable to give such assurance, the bench has come down heavily over the government’s functioning- “If you recall 356 and call someone else to form a government, what else would it be other than travesty of justice,” commented the bench.
Earlier the central government has imposed Presiden’t rule in the state on March 27, just a day before the floor test was due to decide the strength of the government. The court has has been making several comments while dealing with the petition laid by Harish Rawat questioning the validity of the President’s rule in the state. Yesterday, it has observed that though President was satisfied with centre’s decision to impose the rule... ‘The President too can also be terribly wrong.’ Looking at the way of proceedings and comments made by the court. It doesn’t seem to be an easy case for the government to duck away.