HC asks Meghalaya governor's office to correctly advise him

The Meghalaya High Court on Thursday asked the office of Governor V. Shanmuganathan to correctly advise him on judicial matters pending in courts.

The court's directive came while hearing a PIL filed by RTI activist Agnes Kharshiing, seeking disqualification of members of the Legislative Assembly who are also members of the autonomous district councils in the state, which is lying pending in the court since November 3, 2014, awaiting the decision of the governor.

The full bench of Chief Justice Uma Nath Singh, Justice T. Nandakumar Singh and Justice S.R. Sen also recalled that the division bench of the high court had passed a detailed order on October 9, 2015 which observed that the disqualification of the eight legislators holding dual posts is left to the governor under the constitution's article 192 to take an appropriate decision.

Earlier in the day, the full bench of the court directed Principal Secretary to Governor M.S. Rao to appear and explain about the status of the decision taken by the governor in this case.

However, Rao did not appear before the court but instead submitted a letter through Advocate General K.S. Kynjing informing that the governor has not permitted him to appear before it along with the related file.

Fixing the next hearing for November 24, the full bench directed the principal secretary to the governor to place the copy of their order before the governor, for perusal and appropriate orders to his secretariat.