AMN /
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to file reply on the imposition of President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh by Friday. The next hearing in the case will take place on Monday.
The Apex Court also asked counsel for Arunachal Pradesh Governor to furnish immediately his report that led to imposition of President’s rule in the state. The Court asked why it was not apprised about the latest development.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had agreed for an urgent hearing of Congress’s plea, challenging the Union Cabinet’s recommendation to impose President’s Rule in crisis-hit Arunachal Pradesh.
A bench comprising justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan had said that the fresh plea will also be heard by the five-judge Constitution bench which is already hearing a batch of petitions on the Arunachal issue.
The fresh plea was mentioned for urgent hearing by senior advocates Fali S Nariman and Kapil Sibal. Congress, which has 47 MLAs seats in the 60-member assembly, suffered a jolt when 21 of them rebelled.
Eleven BJP MLAs backed the rebels in the bid to upstage the Nabam Tuki government. Later, 14 rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified.
The governor then called assembly session on December 16 in which deputy speaker revoked disqualification of 14 rebel Congress MLAs and removed Rebia from the post of Speaker.
This sitting was held in a community hall in Itanagar. Various decisions of the governor and the deputy speaker were challenged by Rebia in Gauhati high court which passed an interim order keeping in abeyance these decisions till February one.