Congress threatens court challenge over ordinance

Continuing its attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, the Congress said Thursday it will go to court if the Centre issues an ordinance to authorise expenditure beyond April 1 in Uttarakhand, that is under President’s Rule. Accusing the Centre of being ‘not concerned about parliamentary democracy and the Constitution’, the Congress said promulgation of any such ordinance will be ‘unprecedented and unconstitutional’. Amid continuing political uncertainty in the hill state, the Uttarakhand High Court had stayed the floor test in the state Assembly that was due on Thursday. The Centre’s petition seeking a review of the High Court’s interim order on a floor test is posted for resumed hearing on April 6. President’s Rule was imposed in the state earlier this week after the Centre cited a ‘constitutional crisis’.

In Dehradun, meanwhile, senior leaders of both the BJP and the Congress held closed-door meetings with their MLAs. The BJP’s Shyam Jaju and Kailash Vijayvargiya and the Congress’ Ambika Soni and Sanjay Kapoor held meetings to keep their ranks intact for another week. The high court has deferred the Assembly floor test till April 7.

While Ms Soni and Mr Kapoor left Dehradun Thursday after holding detailed meetings with party MLAs and other leaders, including deposed CM Harish Rawat and PCC president Kishore Upadhyay at undisclosed venues to discuss ways to keep their house in order, Mr Jaju and Mr Vijayvargiya kept themselves closeted with MLAs in a hotel somewhere on the outskirts of the city to ward off the possibility of poaching.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, taking a dig at Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley, said, “I must congratulate Jaitley. It is a first to his credit. The Central government will decide whether the Budget in an Assembly is passed or not.” He claimed the Budget has already been approved by the Uttarakhand Assembly and the Speaker declared so, “and there has been no petition in any court against it nor has anyone approached any court”.

Targeting the BJP and Centre, the Congress leader alleged that the BJP and the Central government wanted to show anyhow that the Budget was not passed on the floor of the Uttarakhand Assembly. He accused the Centre of playing this ‘political game’ as part of its attempts to destabilise the state government. “They swear by the Constitution, but tear it to shreds,” Mr Sibal said, adding that the prorogation of the Budget Session of Parliament to enable the government to issue such an ordinance was also part of this game. “They are afraid that if they bring the bill in Parliament on the matter, they will be defeated,” he said.

Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “A situation is created in a state where there is constitutional breakdown, the state could not get its Appropriations Bill passed. If the Appropriations Bill is not passed, the state employees will not get their salaries from April 1 and the development of the state will come to a standstill.”