SC declines to stop Arunachal governor from installing new government

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to pass any order on former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki's plea seeking to restrain Governor J.P.Rajkhowa from swearing in dissident leader Kalikho Pul or any other person as chief minister.

"Now we have heard you. We propose not to pass any order on that," Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, who heads the constitution bench, told senior counsel Kapil Sibal who appeared for Tuki.

The court order came as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court that it could not pre-empt the constitutional authority from exercising his powers and if some action is taken by the governor, the court has every power to examine it.

Even as Rohatgi urged the court not to restrict the governor from exercising his constitutional authority, senior counsel T.R.Andhyarijnua, appearing for Rajkhowa, told the court that no report has been sent by him to the president recommending the revocation of president's rule.

The court order came in the course of the hearing of the petitions by the constitution bench which also had Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice N.V. Ramana questioning the role of the governor in the ongoing political crisis in the border state.

Sibal told the court that governor could not swear in a person who enjoyed the support of legislators disqualified by then speaker Nabam Rebia.