Days after Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit made it clear that his consent to summon Vidhan Sabha’s budget session will be given only after getting legal advice on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s “derogatory” remarks against him, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on Sunday declared the Government will soon be knocking at the doors of the Supreme Court.
Making known the government’s decision to seek the intervention of the country’s Apex Court via Twitter, Mann said that they have to go to the Supreme Court to conduct the budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha — indicating that the AAP Government is in no mood to bow down before the Governor, and in fact would fight it out in the country’s apex court. The development comes amidst the ongoing slugfest between the Governor and the Chief Minister over slew of issues. The latest confrontation between the two started after the Governor sought complete details on the principals’ training in Singapore.
“Glimpses of the world's largest democracy...Go to Supreme Court to make mayor despite majority in Delhi…Go to the Supreme Court to make the Deputy Mayor...Have to go to the Supreme Court to conduct the budget session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha…The search for democracy continues…,” Mann tweeted in Punjabi on Sunday evening.
Notably, the State Cabinet on Tuesday last decided to summon the budget session from March 3, for which the Governor’s nod is required. For the same, the AAP-led State Government had written to the Governor to approve the summoning of the session. Responding to the same letter, the Governor, in a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, had reminded him the tweet and letter in which Mann had not only refused to respond to the “significant” issues raised by Purohit, but had also apparently challenged his authority while asking him to first “explain the qualifications” for appointing a person on the coveted post of the Governor by the Centre.
“Since your tweet and letter both are not only patently unconstitutional but extremely derogatory also, therefore, I am compelled to take legal advice on this issue. Only after getting legal advice. I will take decision on your request,” Purohit had said in his letter, in which he had reproduced the contents of his tweet and letter with its English translation.
