Rajasthan powerplay: Congress fields party’s legal eagles to battle Governor’s delay on calling House session

Chidambaram said that in his “personal view”, Sachin Pilot, who is leading the rebellion against Gehlot, seems to be “entirely in the embrace of the BJP”, and questioned the former deputy CM’s silence on convening of the session.

He said: “…In fact, he should be the first to stand up and say, please call a session of the Assembly; then we will know which party he belongs to and what he will do. He has maintained that he belongs to the Congress…he maintains that Gehlot has lost his majority, so he should actually join the Congress in telling the Governor…(to) call a session.” What Pilot will do in the session “is his decision, but why is he silent about calling a session”, he asked.

Recalling court judgments in the context of Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, which he said had come down heavily on Governors, Chidambaram said, “Despite these judgments and the statements of law, the Governor of Rajasthan has stalled…a perfectly valid request of the Council of Ministers of Rajasthan to convene a session of the Assembly.”

He said the Governor has no discretion at all in the matter.

In a letter to Governor Mishra, Khurshid, Sibal and Kumar wrote that the delay in convening the Assembly session has “resulted in an avoidable Constitutional impasse”. “We believe that as per established conventions of the Constitution, principles of Parliamentary democracy, relevant Articles of the Constitution and authoritative pronouncements of the Supreme Court, the Governor is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers in the matter of convening the State Assembly,” they stated.

They said the Governor’s office, as envisaged under the Constitutional scheme, is “above and beyond the constraints and compulsions of partisan politics so that its holder can act freely and fairly to uphold the Constitution”.

They wrote: “Having served as Union ministers of Law and Justice at different periods of time and as students of Constitutional law, we are of the clear view that established legal position obliges the Governor to call the Assembly session in accordance with the advice of the state cabinet.

“Any deviation from the established constitutional position in the present circumstances would be an avoidable negation of your oath of office and will create a constitutional crisis.”