Supreme Court asks AG about feasibility of holding floor test in Uttarakhand

Giving a hint that it would pass an order allowing Harish Rawat government to prove his strength in the Assembly, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to make its stand clear by Wednesday on the issue of floor test in Uttarakhand.

The court asked Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi to seek instruction from the government in view of the apex court ruling in the Rameshwar Prasad case judgment.

"In view of ….judgment, why not have a floor test under our supervision," a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said and fixed a detailed hearing on Wednesday.

President's Rule was imposed in Uttarakhand after Harish Rawat government was reduced to a minority on March 18.

The apex court had on April 22 stayed till April 27 the judgment of the Uttarakhand High Court, which quashed the Presidential promulgation. The Centre has challenged the high court order before the top court.

On April 27, it had extended the stay till further orders and had also framed seven questions while giving the liberty to the AG to include other questions the government would like to be addressed.

Earlier, the court had also questioned the grounds on the basis of which the President's Rule was imposed and asked the senior most law officer of the government to address seven queries raised by it.

"Whether the Governor could have sent the message in the present manner under Article 175 (2) for conducting floor test," the bench had said in its first question.

It had further asked whether the disqualification of MLAs by the Speaker is a "relevant issue" for the purposes of invoking President's rule under Article 356 of the Constitution.