NEW DELHI/DEHRADUN, May 11:
Harish Rawat was today restored as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, 46 days after he was ousted by the Centre in a political battle that ended in a setback to Narendra Modi government as the Supreme Court today put its stamp of approval on the floor test in the Assembly.
“We have opened the result of the vote presented to us in a sealed cover by Jaidev Singh, Principal Secretary (Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs) and we find that 33 votes out of 61 were cast in favour of Rawat,” an apex court bench said seeking revocation of President’s rule forthwith so that 68-year-old Rawat can take over as Chief Minister.
Celebrations broke out in Dehradun with Congress workers bursting firecrackers, singing and dancing and distributing sweets the moment the news trickled in from the court that Rawat has won the trial of strength in the Assembly yesterday which was carried out on the instructions of the Supreme Court.
Amidst celebrations, a happy and smiling Rawat was restrained in his comments by saying the judiciary has restored the faith of people in democracy and pledged to start afresh forgetting the “bad patch” to take state forward.
The denouement in the political saga that took various twists and turns and a number of court battles has come as a major loss of face for Modi government at the Centre which had dismissed the Congress government and imposed President’s rule after nine Congress MLAs sided with BJP on the Appropriation Bill.
The rebel MLAs were subsequently disqualified by the Speaker under the anti-defection law, a decision that was upheld by the Uttarakhand High Court and not interfered with by the Supreme Court.
Shortly after the court’s directions, the Union Cabinet met in Parliament House and recommended to the President lifting of the President’s rule to enable restoration of the Rawat government.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi met the President and explained to him the Cabinet’s recommendation against the backdrop of the court hearing before he approved the recommendation and a notification ending Central rule was issued at night.
Congress and other opposition parties attacked the Centre for dismissing Rawat government but BJP fended off saying Congress has “bought” majority in Uttarakhand but “lost people’s majority”.
“The Prime Minister should apologise in Parliament and sack the Minister who advised him to impose President’s rule or the Minister should himself quit”, Congress spokesman and senior advocate Kapil Sibal told reporters.
At the outset in the court hearing, Rohatgi conceded that there is no doubt that Harish Rawat has proved his majority.
“It is clear from news and other reports that orderly voting did take place and Rawat has proved his majority. I have taken instructions from the government and the instruction from the very highest authority is that we will revoke the President’s rule.
“I also have instructions that this can only be done with the leave of this court. We will revoke the President’s rule from today. I have also advised the government to revoke the President’s rule,” the AG said.
Senior advocate Sibal, who appeared for Rawat and the Uttarakhand Speaker, said “our appreciation is for the fair stand taken by the AG.”
The AG said that “his (Rawat’s) government has to be restored forthwith.”
The bench said Harish Rawat will assume office as CM after President’s rule is revoked. “We allow the Centre to revoke forthwith the order of proclamation of President’s rule in the state,” it said.
The bench asked the Centre to file before it day after tomorrow its order revoking the President’s rule in Uttarakhand.
It, however, held that the justifiability of the proclamation of President’s rule made on March 27, which has been assailed by the high court, will remain alive as it is under challenge before the apex court.
It also noted that the nine disqualified MLAs have challenged the HC order and the matter is of debate. “We do not say anything on that,” the bench said.
An ecstatic Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said that democracy has won and hoped that the Prime Minister will “learn the lesson”.
“They (BJP) did their worst. We did our best. Democracy won in Uttarakhand.
“Hope the PM learns the lesson that people of India and institutions built by our founding fathers will not tolerate murder of democracy,” Rahul said on Twitter. (PTI)
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