SC asks Goa Governor to hold floor test on Thursday

The three-judge bench heard Congress counsel A M Singhvi who raised several constitutional issues for nearly two hours but in the end the court stated that all these can be disposed of with a "simple order" to hold the floor test as early as possible.

Singhvi argued that the governor had violated constitutional norms by not calling the single largest party winning the elections, which is the Congress. He cited several judgments emphasising that it was the governor's duty to at least contact the party with the largest number of legislators. In this case, Congress had 17 in the 40-member house and BJP had only 13. The governor showed extreme hurry on the night when the election results were announced and named Parrikkar as the chief minister. Congress was not even contacted on phone, thereby denying it an opportunity to show its strength. This was against the mandate of the people. The governor played a "cat and mouse game" by hurrying to call the second larges party, counsel said. He added that it was subversion of democracy, which is one of the basic structures of the Constitution.

Harish Salve, senior counsel for BJP, argued that the governor was convinced that Parikkar had the support of three Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party legislators and three from Goa Forward Party. In addition there were two independents who supported BJP. Therefore BJP had 21 legislators which formed the majority in the house. The governor had announced floor test within 15 days.

The judges observed that Congress should have "run" to the Governor immediately after the results were declared. It has not made Parikkar a party in the petition. "You cannot have an order behind his back," the judges said. They also remarked that the Congress party has not based its pleadings with hard evidence on the number of legislators supporting it. Regarding the judgments cited by Singhvi, the court said they were not necessary. "You are fuzzy about commas and full stops," the Chief Justice observed.