Harish Rawat challenges President's Rule in HC

A day after the imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand, former chief minister Harish Rawat on Monday moved the high court in Nainital, challenging the central rule.

Rawat also met Governor K K Paul with 32 MLAs, and said he was ready to prove a majority in the Assembly. However, party MLA Sarbat Karim was not present during the crucial meeting. When asked, state party chief Kishore Upadhayay said Karim couldn't come because he's unwell. "Since we enjoy the majority in the 61-member House (after the disqualification of nine rebel MLAs), Congress should be invited to form new government and prove its majority on the floor of the House," Upadhayay told Business Standard.

A petition on behalf of Rawat was filed by his counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi before U C Dhyani in the high court of Uttarakhand. The hearing was adjourned till Tuesday.

Singhvi contended the circumstances were not suitable for invoking Article 356 of the Constitution, under which the government was dismissed and the Assembly kept under suspended animation.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and party spokesman Manish Tewari accused the Centre of "murdering democracy" by imposing central rule in a second Congress-ruled state within two months. "I would like to point out that when the Governor had given time to CM for a floor test, when the decision of Supreme Court on Bommai says that a floor test is the only way to test the majority of a government, why did the Prime Minister and his Cabinet unceremoniously, almost through a coup, topple the government in Uttarakhand?" he asked.

However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley put the blame squarely on the Congress and accused the House Speaker of declaring as passed a "defeated" appropriation Bill and then failing to certify it. In a Facebook post titled 'A State without a Budget', Jaitley said the Congress "plunged the State into a serious Constitutional crisis by continuing a government which should have quit after the failure of the Appropriation Bill". To further complicate the crisis, "the chief minister started allurement, horse-trading and disqualification with a view to altering the composition of the House," he wrote.