last word yet to be heard; wait for a week more

It's just as well that a Division Bench of the Uttarakhand High Court has stayed the orders of a single-judge Bench which had directed Harish Rawat to take a trust vote in the Assembly on March 31 (and also allowed nine disqualified rebel Congress legislators to participate in the confidence motion), until April 7. The original order had caused considerable confusion and prompted the Union Government to challenge it before a Division Bench through the country's Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who sought clarity on the matter. The confusion was primarily on two counts. The first had to do with the State being under President's Rule. With the President's Rule not being stayed (although it faces a legal challenge), there was no question of any 'Government' being in place, and thus the issue of the latter seeking a trust vote did not arise. The second confusion was regarding the status of the disqualified MlAs. Since their disqualification too had not been stayed or set aside by the court, they could not possibly participate in the Assembly's proceeding. And yet the single-judge Bench had allowed the nine disqualified legislators to vote. And here came two other complications: If the legislators remained suspended, the Speaker would have been within his rights to disallow them to enter the House and take part in proceedings. How and where then could these MlAs have votedIJ Also, the single-judge Bench had ordered that the votes of these rebel MlAs should be kept separate and sealed from the rest of the lot and taken into consideration subject to the disposal of a petition that had been moved by them to challenge their disqualification. In other words, until such time that their petitions were decided upon, their lack of confidence in the Government would not have mattered and that the Government, even if in a minority on the basis of those nine votes, would have assumed power. Clearly, besides giving rise to legal confusions, the judge's order had added to the already messy political situation. The Division Bench has at least provided some time for clarity by staying the single-judge Bench's directive for trust vote. In fact, such was the confusion that the Division Bench has decided to study the matter from beginning to end, as it asked the litigants to submit their replies with all relevant documents by April 5 and posted the matter for hearing on April 6. Since the stay on the trust vote remains as of now until April 7, it is expected that the Division Bench will decide on the matter on April 6.

Now, the warring camps have some time to prepare their briefs and bolster their political positions. It is far from clear whether Harish Rawat, who had to make an unceremonious exit, will be able to regain the political influence he has lost over the past few days, regardless of the legal outcome. In fact, even if does survive the crisis for the moment, he will certainly be a less potent force. This will be more so if the BJP and the rebel Congress MlAs it has backed in the revolt against Harish Rawat are able to remain cemented to each other in the coming days. It will be interesting to see what position the Uttarakhand High Court takes at the next hearing. The immediate political future of the State is at stake like never before.