The Supreme Court will on Tuesday urgently hear a petition filed by former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and nine other BJP MLAs seeking the holding of a vote of confidence on the floor of the Legislative Assembly against the Kamalnath-led Congress government.
Mr. Chouhan and his fellow BJP legislators, who approached the Supreme Court on March 16, wanted the floor test to be held immediately, possibly within the next 12 hours. They challenged the decision of the Assembly Speaker to adjourn the floor test to March 26. Mr. Chouhan informed the court that “horse-trading is at its peak” in the State.
The petition is listed for hearing before a Bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta.
“Any deferment of the floor test will further encourage horse-trading and would be in utter violation of the directions issued by the Governor and the law laid down by this Court and the spirit and Basic Structure of the Constitution,” the BJP leaders contended.
The demand for a floor test arose after the departure of Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Congress.
The petition said 22 Congress legislators resigned on account of their dissatisfaction with Mr. Nath’s “non-fulfilment of promises made prior to elections”. They tendered their resignation to the Speaker on March 10.
It is believed that their resignations have reduced the present Congress government’s numbers in the House to a minority.
“Since the government appears to have lost the majority in the House and the Chief Minister had himself expressed willingness to conduct the floor test, the Governor, in exercise of his constitutional powers, in a letter dated March 14, directed the Chief Minister to conduct a floor test in the House and prove his majority on March 16, when the Budget Session of the Assembly begins,” the petition said.
Governor’s directive
However, despite the clear-cut directions issued by the Governor to the Chief Minister to seek a vote of confidence and prove his majority on March 16 after the address of the Governor, the confidence vote has not been included in the business of the House for the day.
“The direction of the Governor has, thus, intentionally and wilfully been defied. The Chief Minister and his party leaders have publicly declined to conduct the floor test,” the petition said. It reiterated that with the “lack of confidence and resignation” of the 22 MLAs, of which six have been accepted by the Speaker, the Nath government has been reduced to a minority.
“It has no moral, legal, democratic or constitutional right to remain in power even for a single day. All possible attempts are being made by the Chief Minister to convert his minority government into majority by giving all possible threats, allurements to the members of the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. The horse-trading is at its peak,” it said.
Whenever a situation has arisen over the issue of majority of a government in the House, the top court had always issued directions for immediate conduct of floor test. Both the Speaker and the Chief Minister have deliberately defied the Governor and violated fundamental rights.
Besides Mr. Chouhan, the other petitioners are Gopal Bhargava, Narottam Mishra, Bhupendra Singh, Rameshwar Sharma, Vishnu Khatri, Vishwas Sarang, Sanjay Satyendra Pathak, Krishna Gaur and Suresh Rai.
The petition has arraigned Mr. Nath, the Speaker, Principal Secretary of the Assembly, the State of Madhya Pradesh through Chief Secretary and the Governor as respondents.
