Hope Centre Won't Provoke Us, Says Uttarakhand HC
NEW DELHI: Taking a tough stand, the Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday warned the Centre not to revoke President’s rule in the State till it pronounced its verdict on a petition challenging the imposition of the rule.
During the day-long hearing, a bench of Chief Justice K M Joseph and Justice V K Bist observed that the legitimacy of the President’s decision - to suspend the Assembly - is subject to review.
“We hope they will not provoke us,” the bench said, after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, claimed President’s rule might be revoked before the verdict was pronounced or even reserved.
The bench is likely to reserve its verdict on Rawat’s plea against the President’s rule. It is also likely that the court may issue some interim order on Thursday. The court said the “legitimacy of inference drawn by President from the material placed before him is open to judicial review”. This observation was made after the Centre contended that the President’s understanding of the material placed before him would be different from the court’s. The bench had said that from the reports sent by the Governor to the President, “what we have understood is that everything was proceeding towards a floor test”. Singhvi expressed his fears after the Centre said the Attorney- General’s statement of April 7 that nothing with regard to Article 356 will be done till April 17 had expired.