Minister for home affairs Rajnath Singh said that an appropriate reply would be filed before the Supreme Court in the matter.
The statement from the minister came a day after the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on the Uttarakhand governor’s plea challenging the Narendra Modi government’s move to ease him out of office, bringing the controversy over the removal of UPA-appointed governors under judicial lens.
The apex court had also issued notice to home secretary Anil Goswami who had allegedly threatened governor Qureshi to resign from the post or face removal by Centre. Following the controversy, Singh on Friday said Qureshi was holding a constitutional post with the pleasure of the president.
Qureshi’s move comes after the NDA government sacked Mizoram governor Kamla Beniwal, 87, who had served in Gujarat earlier and had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was the state’s chief minister. Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked as Puducherry lieutenant governor last month.
Four other governors — MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), BL Joshi (UP) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh) had put in their papers apparently after they were telephoned by the Union home secretary.
Two former law ministers — Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid — had termed home secretary’s calls to the governor as unconstitutional as Quereshi had taken charge of the office on May 15, 2012 for a tenure of five years.
A bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha had granted six weeks time to Centre and Goswami to file their response on the allegation levelled by the Governor and referred the case to 5-judge Constitution bench observing that interpretation of Article 156 (term of office of governor) is involved.
The statement from the minister came a day after the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on the Uttarakhand governor’s plea challenging the Narendra Modi government’s move to ease him out of office, bringing the controversy over the removal of UPA-appointed governors under judicial lens.
The apex court had also issued notice to home secretary Anil Goswami who had allegedly threatened governor Qureshi to resign from the post or face removal by Centre. Following the controversy, Singh on Friday said Qureshi was holding a constitutional post with the pleasure of the president.
Qureshi’s move comes after the NDA government sacked Mizoram governor Kamla Beniwal, 87, who had served in Gujarat earlier and had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was the state’s chief minister. Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked as Puducherry lieutenant governor last month.
Four other governors — MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), BL Joshi (UP) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh) had put in their papers apparently after they were telephoned by the Union home secretary.
Two former law ministers — Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid — had termed home secretary’s calls to the governor as unconstitutional as Quereshi had taken charge of the office on May 15, 2012 for a tenure of five years.
A bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha had granted six weeks time to Centre and Goswami to file their response on the allegation levelled by the Governor and referred the case to 5-judge Constitution bench observing that interpretation of Article 156 (term of office of governor) is involved.