New Delhi, March 11
Meghalya Progressive Alliance today moved the Supreme Court against the installation of a “minority” Congress government in Meghalya and sought to declare state Governor
S.S. Sidhu’s action of administering oath to D.D. Lapang for Chief Minister, as an unconstitutional move.
Meghalya
Progressive Alliance (MPA) leader Conard K. Sangma moved a petition in the apex court seeking an urgent hearing as he described it as a “clear breach” of constitutional provisions by the Governor.
MPA counsel Soli Sorabjee made a special mention of the petition before a Bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, which put it up for hearing tomorrow.
MPA, an alliance of five parties — the NCP, the UDP, the HSPDP, the KHNAM and the BJP — claimed that it had a majority support of 31 MLAs, which was duly proved before the Governor, still he had shown an undue hurry to administer oath to Lapang, who only had the support of 25 MLAs in the 60 member House with effective strength of 57 seats for which the results were declared.
“The Governor in spite of having being convinced about the strength of the legislators of the MPA, ignored it and called the Congress leader to form the government and gave him 10 days time to prove the majority,” Sangma in his petition said.
The Governor did so despite knowing that the Congress was not even close to a simple majority in the House, while the MPA commanded an absolute majority with 31 MLAs, the petition said.
The MPA has also sought to declare the grant of 10 days time to the Congress to prove its majority as illegal as it was ex-facie “arbitrary, unconstitutional, void and excessive use of constitutional power by the Governor.”
