The Kohima Bench of the Guwahati High Court has today stayed the directive of the Governor to the Chief Minister to go for a floor test on or before July 15, 2017, till Monday when the matter will come up for hearing.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers led by the Chief Minister called on the Governor this afternoon where the latter told the Chief Minister to bring about a reconciliation amongst the legislators.
Kuzholuzo Nienu, newly elected Chairman of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland Coordination Committee, emphatically told the Governor that the DAN coalition is intact and that the present crisis is only within the NPF party.
In the writ petition filed by the petitioner Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu before the Kohima Bench of the Guwahati High Court today, it was argued that the decision of the Governor asking the petitioner who is also the Chief Minister of Nagaland to conduct a floor test on or before July 15was “ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution.”
Pointing out that the process of bye elections (in which the petitioner is seeking to be elected) is already under process and that it was “imperative and incumbent upon the Hon’ble Governor to call upon the Petitioner to prove its majority on the floor of the House only pursuant to the by-elections wherein the Petitioner is a candidate. The Hon’ble Governor by the impugned decision has virtually sought to strangulate the will of the Council of Ministers and have used the office of the Governor to suit his political needs. There is no recommendation from the Council of Ministers to the Hon’ble Governor and the Hon’ble Governor on his own volition chose to impose the impugned decision upon the Petitioner without any legal foundation and against constitutional norms.
“The Hon’ble Governor, without affording an opportunity to the Petitioner for a free and fair election for his candidature, has hastily proceeded to reject the request made by the Petitioner herein to pre-empt the already scheduled elections.
“It is submitted that the decision of the Governor to the Petitioner directing to convene an emergent session, communicated on 13.07.2017, is ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and against the well-established constitutional convention of a Hon’ble Chief Minister’s duties and responsibilities to discharge his official functions under the Constitution of India. It is submitted that the decision of the Hon’ble Governor dated 13.07.2017 has been taken without even giving an opportunity to the Petitioner and his Council of Ministers.
“The decision of the Hon’ble Governor is completely tainted with arbitrariness, malafide, partisanship and has been taken in an extremely hasty manner on 13.07.2017 to pre-empt any staking of claim by the Petitioner. As such it is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.
“The Hon’ble Governor has taken the impugned decision without any application of mind. It is submitted that the impugned order, which seeks to direct the Petitioner to convene an emergent meeting is perverse.”
The Kohima Bench of Guwahati High Court was of the “tentative opinion” that an interim is called for and had stayed the Governor’s letter till Monday, July 17, when the matter will come up for hearing.
(Issued by media Cell, Chief Minister’s Office, Nagaland)
This Press Release was sent by CMO Mediacell, who can be contacted at cmomediacell(at)gmail(dot)com.
