Dehradun: In a big setback to Congress, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Uttarakhand High Court's order quashing the President's Rule in the state.
An apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra reviewed the order of the High Court and stayed its verdict till April 27. The state High Court had yesterday set aside the Centre's rule imposed last month, saying Article 356 was imposed in the state contrary to the law laid down by Supreme Court.
Here are 10 developments in the story:
-The Centre argued before SC that Rawat heads a minority government and cannot remain in office.
-It claimed that last month, when Rawat presented the state's budget, nine Congressmen voted against it.
-The Centre claimed that the budget was therefore wrongly declared as cleared, when, in fact, most legislators had rejected it.
-The Uttarakhand High Court had on Thursday rejected that as justification for removing Rawat from office.
-The Centre introduced President's Rule one day before Rawat was to take a trust vote in March. -The timing of the Centre's move and its motives have been labeled suspect by judges.
-The nine Congress rebels have been disqualified from the assembly for defection. They want that decision reversed.
-The Supreme Court's stay is till April 27, two days before Mr Rawat is to take a trust vote.
-The amount of votes Harish Rawat needs on his side depends on the total number of legislators or overall strength in the assembly.
-Without the rebels taking part, he needs 31 votes which he can manage easily with the support of other parties. If the nine Congress dissidents are not removed from the house, he needs 36 votes.
-The BJP in the state says that he will be defeated, and that it will then have the right to stake claim to form the next government.
