The Punjab Governor was duty-bound to summon the Budget Session of the assembly once the state cabinet recommended for it, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday even as it made it clear that the Chief Minister was equally duty-bound to furnish information sought by the Governor.”Under Article 167(b) of the Constitution, when the Governor asks you to furnish information – you’re duty bound to furnish it to him. Ask one of your secretaries to respond. At the same time, Mr SG, once the cabinet says budget session has to be convened, he is duty bound,” a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said.
“There must be in our public discourse, a certain constitutional discourse. We may belong to different political parties, office the Governor is not from a party, but we have to have a constitutional discourse,” said the Bench which also included Justice PS Narasimha.During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the top court that Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit has on Tuesday summoned the House for budget session rendering the AAP Government’s petition infructuous.
The Bench said the Governor has to act on the aid and advice of the Cabinet and this was not a case where he was supposed to act on his own discretion.”The budget session would not be convened is simply inconceivable,” it said.On the Governor’s decision to seek legal advice on summoning of budget session, the Bench said he was simply bound by the advice tendered to him by the state cabinet.The Bench disapproved of the Chief Minister’s tweet and letter, saying it left much to be desired. He was duty-bound to furnish the information sought by the Governor, it said.
“In the backdrop of the aforesaid communication, the governor while responding to the request by the cabinet for summoning the Budget Session or Vidhan Sabha from 3 March stated that- since your tweet and letter are patently unconstitutional,” the top court said.Earlier, the matter was mentioned by senior advocate AM Singhvi before the CJI-led Bench which agreed to take it up after the Constitution Bench matter relating to Maharashtra got over.
On behalf of the Punjab Government, Singhvi said that only because the Chief Minister made certain intemperate comments, the Governor can’t refuse to summon the budget session.Purohit had reportedly refused permission to the government to summon the Budget session till he had taken legal advice on the tweets and letter written by CM Bhagwant Mann.Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the Punjab Government’s petition contended that under the constitutional scheme, the Governor is bound to summon the assembly as per the aid and advice given to him by the elected government.
On Thursday, when the AAP government held its first Progressive Punjab Investors’ Summit, the Governor sent a letter to the CM, saying he would decide whether to allow the Budget session on March 3, only after he had sought legal advice on the “extremely derogatory and patently constitutional tweets and letter” written by CM Mann in response to his letter sent earlier this month.
