Trust vote would mean two Uttarakhand Governments: Centre tells court

"If you allow a trust vote, there will be two governments," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the Nainital High Court where a petition against floor test is being heard.

The Centre on Wednesday challenged the high court's order asking Harish Rawat to face a trust vote in the assembly on Thursday on grounds that Uttarakhand is under central rule.

"What was the need to pass this judgement. Why could they not wait two days? Voting in assembly is suspended so how is the learned judge calling the house to sit? There can't be a house, cannot be a sitting,"  Rohatgi said.

The AG said,  "the assembly building is empty, there is no government, there is no MLA (lawmaker) once 356 (President's Rule) is in place."

A a trust vote would mean an assembly sitting and "two governments, one that has had the sitting and one that is there under central rule," he argued.

The  High Court on Tuesday ordered a floor test in the Assembly to determine which party enjoys a majority and stayed President's Rule, which was imposed on Sunday. The court, in it order, also allowed the nine suspended rebel MLAs to take part in the floor test.
 
Till last week, Harish Rawat of the Congress was Chief Minister. The crisis befell the hill state d on March 18 when nine Congress MLAs rebelled against Rawat's government.  The BJP met the Governor the same day and staked claim to form the government.

The Centre said this proved that his government had been reduced to a minority.  Rawat and his party refuted that allegation, and were told by Governor KK Paul to take a trust vote on Monday, March 28.