Will move court if ordinance nullifies Uttarakhand budget: Congress

The Congress on Thursday said it will move court if the Centre issues an ordinance to nullify the budget already passed by the Uttarakhand assembly.

"We have got to know that the central government will issue an ordinance to allocate funds to Uttarakhand for the next fiscal. It is an attempt to nullify the budget the Harish Rawat-led government passed in the Uttarakhand assembly. We are going to challenge it once the ordinance is passed because it is completely unconstitutional," senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters here.

"They are not concerned about parliamentary democracy; they are not concerned about constitutional norms nor have they anything to do about principles," Sibal said, referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"They can actually keep aside all these things because political considerations are at the forefront of the decision making process of this government so as to achieve 'Congress-mukt' Bharat," he added.

"I want to ask the prime minister on what basis and under what laws have you declared through an ordinance that the budget has not been passed in the state assembly. Is there any decision of the court?" asked Sibal.

"The union government cannot decide if the budget was passed by the assembly or not. The centre has no business to interfere in state matters," he said, while insisting that assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal had ruled that the budget was passed by the house on March 18.

Earlier, union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Congress government could not manage to get the 2016-17 budget passed in the assembly.

Congress sources said the party will move the Uttarakhand High Court on Friday against Bharatiya Janata Party's plea to put on hold the disqualification of nine rebel Congress legislators in Uttarakhand.