Rebel Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna, along with other rebel Congress MLAs, at a press conference at his official residence in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. (Photo: PTI)
Rebel Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna, along with other rebel Congress MLAs, at a press conference at his official residence in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. (Photo: PTI)
The Congress will move court if the Centre issues an ordinance to authorise expenditure beyond April 1 in Uttarakhand, which is under President’s Rule, party leader Kapil Sibal said here on Thursday.
Promulgation of any such ordinance would be “unprecedented and unconstitutional”, Mr Sibal, a senior SC lawyer, told reporters, while accusing the Centre of being “not concerned about parliamentary democracy and the Constitution”.
Taking a dig at finance minister Arun Jaitley, also a senior advocate, Mr Sibal remarked, “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.”
Claiming that the Budget has already been approved by the Uttarakhand Assembly, he said the Speaker has declared so and there has been no petition in any court against it nor has anyone approached any court.
Targeting the BJP and the Centre, he alleged that they wanted to show anyhow that the Budget has not been 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 are tearing it to shreds,” he said.
He said the prorogation of the Budget Session of Parliament for enabling 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.
Responding to a question, Mr Sibal said if the Uttarakhand Assembly had not passed the Budget then President’s Rule should have been imposed the next day (March 19), but the Centre delayed it because the BJP was expecting a positive decision on the nine Congress rebel legislators.
“On what basis and under what laws have you declared through an ordinance that the Budget has not been passed in the Assembly. Is there any decision of the court,” Mr Sibal asked the Prime Minister, adding, “If you had allowed the floor test to take place on 28th (March) and allowed Mr Harish Rawat to prove his majority, and if there were any problems, that would have been solved.” He said it was “unfortunate that this country, this democracy, is being ravaged in this fashion”. The Congress has accused the Centre of having “murdered democracy” by imposing President’s Rule in Uttarakhand.
Parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu has said, “A situation is created in a state where there is a constitutional breakdown, the state could not get its Appropriation Bill passed. If the Appropriation Bill is not passed, the employees of the state will not get their salary from April 1 and the development of the state will come to a standstill,” he has said.
