Allahabad High Court gives centre two weeks time on Governor appointment issue

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court today gave the Centre two weeks time to file its response on a petition seeking direction to consult Chief Minister before appointing the Governor.

A division bench comprising Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Virendra Kumar Dixit while hearing the petition filed by a local lawyer Ashok Pandey gave the central government counsel two weeks time for seeking instructions.

The court fixed April 16 as the next date of hearing. Earlier, in his writ petition Pandey had said that the term of present Governor B L Joshi was due to expire in April 2012, therefore before appointing his successor the CM of the state should be consulted.

The petition said that issue of appointment and removal of the Governor was between the President and the Prime Minister and there was no role of the Home Ministry.

He said that the Governor should be appointed after consulting the CM, which at present was not being done.