Arunachal Guv wasn’t aggrieved party: SC

Arunachal Pradesh Governor was not the aggrieved party, the Supreme Court said on Monday as it focussed on the decisions of Governor JP Rajkhowa to advance the Assembly session and fix the agenda of the House.

“In the facts of the case, the aggrieved party is either the Congress party or the MLAs (who had been disqualified by Speaker Nabam Rebia), then how does the Governor comes into picture, he is not aggrieved by anything,” a five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Justice JS Khehar, said.

The Bench did not agree with the submission that the Speaker was under clout and hence, the Governor was justified in fixing the agenda that the House should first decide as to whether Rebia enjoyed majority support as the Speaker or not. “If the Speaker was under clout, then these persons (disqualified MLAs) were also under clout. The Speaker had the complaints from the (Congress) party and he acted on it,” the Bench, also comprising justices Dipak Misra, MB Lokur, PC Ghose and NV Ramana, said.

Senior advocate Ashok Desai, who represented 10 MLAs, including the Leader of Opposition, said the Governor is not an aggrieved party but a “decision-making authority”, which has discretionary powers under the Constitution.

During the hearing, the court wondered as to which of the two incidents – running a minority government or running the House by a Speaker, who has lost majority support, was more harmful to the democracy. “We have to see which of these two incidents are more harmful to democracy, whether it’s running of the government, which is in minority or the running of the House by the Speaker who has lost its confidence,” it said.

The observation came after Desai justified the actions of Rajkhowa, saying he was compelled to act after the allegation against the Speaker came that he was "hand in glove with the Chief Minister and Congress party".