Supreme Court restores Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh

New Delhi: Reeling under a huge setback, the government on Wednesday said a structured examination of the Supreme Court order restoring the Nabam Tuki-led Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh will be carried out while considering that a new dispensation was ruling the state after proving majority in the assembly.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, answering a barrage of questions at a media briefing, at the same time said the judgement by the apex court was ‘supreme’ and that government was studying the ‘implications’ of the verdict.
Prasad, who assumed charge of the Law Ministry last week for a second time in the present government, said government will go for a detailed examination of the order and ‘thereafter we can take a call’.
The Supreme Court's order on Arunachal calling sacking of the Tuki government "unconstitutional" came two months after the apex court had restored the Congress dispensation in Uttarakhand.
When asked whether the government will approach the apex court for a review of the verdict, he said "we will have to undertake a very structured examination of the entire direction and thereafter we can take a call."
Prasad said government was yet to get a copy of the order. "From the media reports, I have seen that the Supreme Court has directed status quo ante as in December 2015. I can very safely recall that lot of developments had taken place post December, namely the President's Rule was withdrawn, a new government was sworn in and the new government had proved majority on the floor of the House.
"Now in the light of all these, what is required to be done in terms of Supreme Court's direction — that is paramount, and requires detail consideration," he said. He further said, "We will study the judgement in detail and go for its implications. Obviously, the Supreme Court judgement is supreme," he said.
Asked whether the government had failed to learn lessons from the Uttarakhand episode, Prasad said the matter
pertaining to Arunachal Pradesh was pending before the Constitution Bench even before the Uttarakhand issue came up.
To a poser whether it was a "failure of law management" on the part of the government, Prasad retorted, "I completely disagree with your comment on law management. Supreme Court is completely independent and free."
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court ordered restoration of the Congress government in Arunachal by quashing all decisions of the governor that had precipitated its fall in January, holding them ‘violative’ of the Constitution.
The landmark unanimous judgement by a five-judge bench set aside among other things Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa's message directing the preponing of the session and the manner of holding the proceedings of sixth session of the assembly scheduled from January 14, 2016, to December 16-18, 2015.
The constitution bench, headed by Justice J. S. Khehar, ordered that status quo ante as prevailed on December 15, 2015 be restored in Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. Arunachal Pradesh was placed under President's Rule in January after the Congress faced dissidence.