Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 18 (EMN): Beleaguered Chief Minister Dr.Shürhozelie Liezietsu will be facing a floor test on Tuesday at a special session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) after the Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court today dismissed his petition challenging Governor PB Acharya’s directive to prove his majority by obtaining vote of confidence on the floor of the state Assembly.
Following the court’s verdict, the Governor has written to the NLA Speaker to summon an emergent special session of the state assembly on July 19 at 9.30 am to test the majority support of the present cabinet led by chief minister Liezietsu.
Earlier today, the court, after considering the facts and circumstances presented by the counsels of the petitioner and the respondent before the court on July 17, ruled that there was no merit in Liezietsu’s writ petition and dismissed the same.
In the judgment and order of the court, justice LS Jamir pointed out that the petitioner had in his letter to the Governor dated July 11 failed to give any explanation or claim that the incumbent chief minister still enjoys majority of the House. Liezietsu had written that the claim of TR Zeliang having the support of 37 NPF MLAs and 7 Independent MLAs was an intra-party matter and also that, the by-election to the 10th Northern Angami-I AC has been notified and would be improper to summon a special session during the election period.
From the materials available on record, the court observed, “it appears that the Governor had reasons to believe that the petitioner and his Council of Ministers have lost the confidence of the House”.
The court was also of the view that there is no opposition in the present Nagaland Legislative Assembly and all the elected members from different political parties are constituents of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), and Zeliang’s letter to the Governor dated July 8 indicates that Liezietsu does not have the support from the majority of the House.
Therefore, the court upheld that it was open to the Governor to act on his own, without any aid and advice.
“This Court is of the considered opinion that the Governor had taken the right decision to ask the petitioner to have a vote of confidence in the floor of the House to see which out of the two contesting claimants of Chief Ministership has a majority in the House,” it stated, adding that in view of the matter, the court does not see any reasons to interfere with the Governor’s letter dated July 13.
On the contention of the petitioner’s counsel that there has been violation of Rule 3 of the Conduct of Business, the court stated to have the considered opinion that such contention at this stage is pre-mature and therefore, not tenable.
While rejecting Liezietsu’s plea for sufficient time to obtain vote of confidence on the floor of the House after the bye-election to be held on July 29, the court left the matter to the wisdom of the governor to decide.
It may be recalled that the Gauhati High Court Kohima bench had, on July 14, issued a stay on the Governor’s recommendation for a floor test after Liezietsu filed a writ petition, wherein he claimed that the Governor’s instruction was “ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and violative of the basic features of the Constitution”.
Meanwhile, it was reported that following the court verdict, former chief minister Zeliang has filed a caveat petition in the Principal Bench of Gauhati High Court probably in anticipation that Liezietsu might move an appeal in a higher court. However, this could not be confirmed.
In a major blow to the embattled Chief Minister Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu, the state BJP today finally broke its silence on the prevailing political crisis and announced that it has decided to “remain a constituent of the DAN group led by the DAN chairman TR Zeliang”.
A letter to this effect, duly signed by the state BJP president Visasolie Lhoungu, BJP legislature party leader Paiwang Konyak, and BJP MLAs Dr. TM Lotha, Imtilemba Sangtam and Mmhonlumo Kikon, was submitted to the Governor on Tuesday evening.
