Nagaland Governor P B Acharya (L) administering oath of office and secrecy to Nagaland Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu at Kohima, Nagaland. (Source: PTI Photo, File)
In what can be described as a major setback to Nagaland chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu, the Kohima bench of the Guwahati High Court on Tuesday rejected his contentions against a directive by the governor to go for a floor test, and pushed the ball back to the Raj Bhavan saying it was up to him (governor) to take a decision.
A couple of hours after the High Court order was out, governor PB Acharya issued fresh orders calling for an emergency special session of the Nagaland Assembly on Wednesday morning with an one-point agenda “to test the majority support” of the present cabinet led by chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu.
While governor PB Acharya had, in the wake of dissident legislator TR Zeliang’s claim of majority support, directed chief minister Liezietsu on July 11 and 13 to go for a floor test by July 17, the latter had petitioned the High Court saying it was an “ex facie unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary” order that had violated of the basic features of the Constitution.
Though the High Court had on Friday put the floor test order on hold, on Tuesday it dismissed the chief minister’s contentions as “not tenable”, and rejected his prayer for granting “sufficient time” for the floor test as the chief minister was contesting a bye-election on July 29.
“However, the matter is left to the wisdom of the Governor to take a decision on the same after proper application of mind,” the High Court said. Though the governor’s views on the Court verdict was not immediately known, it was gathered that he would take a decision only after obtaining a copy of the order.
Nagaland has been witnessing a major political crisis for over two weeks now after former chief minister TR Zeliang claimed he had support of 43 members in the 59-member House where all members are part of the DAN. The 43 included 36 NPF legislators and seven Independents. On Tuesday however the four-member BJP Legislature Party also pledged support to the DAN group led by Zeliang, thus taking the number of legislators on his side to 47.
