Punjab govt to move apex court over convening of budget session

Chandigarh

The Punjab government has decided to move the Supreme Court over the issue of summoning of the budget session of the state assembly as governor Banwarilal Purohit has not “reverted” on the state cabinet’s advice to him in this regard.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha broke the news on the micro-blogging site Twitter on Sunday evening, announcing that the matter will be mentioned in the apex court on Monday morning. He said the state government has been “forced” to move the Supreme Court on something as basic as summoning of the budget session of the state assembly. “Settled law that Governor HAS TO summon assembly as per advise of Cabinet sought to be overridden by Governor (sic),” he posted.

Chadha pointed out that the governor on February 23 said he needed to take legal advice but had not responded to date. Later, chief minister Bhagwant Mann also tweeted about the move to approach the Supreme Court. “Glimpses of the world’s largest democracy…Go to Supreme Court to make mayor despite majority in Delhi…The Punjab vidhan Sabha has to go to the Supreme Court to conduct the budget session…The search for democracy continues,” he said.

On Tuesday (February 21), the state cabinet took the decision to call the budget session of the state assembly from March 3, following which the governor was requested to summon the House. Purohit, who has been at loggerheads with the AAP government, wrote back to the chief minister on Thursday, indicating that he is no hurry to summon the session and reminded him about his “unconstitutional and derogatory” response to the February 13 communication from Raj Bhavan on a slew of administrative issues. “Since your tweet and letter both are not only patently unconstitutional but extremely derogatory also, therefore, I am compelled to take legal advice on this issue. Only after getting legal advice, I will take a decision on your request,” he wrote, intensifying the long-running tussle.

In the February 13 letter, the governor sought details on the selection of government school principals sent to Singapore for a training seminar, saying he received complaints of “malpractices”, besides raising some other issues. Mann hit back, telling Purohit that his government “is accountable to three crore Punjabis and not any governor appointed by the central government.”