Punjab Government Vs Governor: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the Punjab government is bound to furnish information sought by the governor, but at the same time, the governor is also duty-bound to accept the recommendations of the cabinet on convening the assembly, PTI reported.
The Supreme Court was hearing the matter amid a standoff between the Punjab government and Governor Banwarilal Purohit over convening the state’s budget assembly session.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the governor, said, “The Punjab government’s plea is not maintainable in view of the governor’s decision to convene the assembly as he has convened the assembly for the budget session on March 3.”
The Punjab government told the court that the governor was abducting the constitution.
As the arguments continued in the court, Additional Solicitor General SP Jain said, “For the past few days, the Punjab government was refusing to provide the information sought by the Governor of Punjab. In a letter to the Governor, the CM had said that the state government is answerable to the voters, not the elected ones.”
The Supreme Court has clearly said that the state government is constitutionally bound to provide the information sought by the Governor under Article 167 of the Constitution. SP Jain said that the SC also said that all constitutional bodies should maintain the dignity of the language used.
The apex court said that it is the duty of the governor to convene the budget session of the assembly after the recommendation of the state cabinet. Therefore, before the Supreme Court verdict was announced today, the Punjab Governor had ordered the Punjab Assembly to be convened from March 3, he said.
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