Arunachal Pradesh government to seek legal opinion on governor preponing Assembly

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to seek legal opinion on whether a governor can summon an Assembly session without the advice of the cabinet.

The decision comes in the wake of state Governor Jyoti Prashad Rajkhowa preponing the winter session of the Assembly in an order issued on December 9 to pave the way for removal of Speaker Nabam Rebia after 11 BJP MLAs and two independent members moved an impeachment motion notice against him.

The state cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, in a meeting yesterday took serious note of the December 9 order re-scheduling the Assembly session from January 14 to December 16 and resolved to seek legal opinion on it, a statement by government spokesman Bamang Felix said today.

"The order has raised important Constitutional issues regarding functioning of the state legislature and government as well as the role of the governor," the statement said.

Meanwhile, a Raj Bhawan release said this morning that the governor had taken opinion from legal experts including the state's additional advocate general, several advocates of High Court and Supreme Court and other legal experts in parliamentary functioning as well as Constitutional experts before taking the decision.

The release also said that the December 9 order for tabling a resolution seeking the Speaker's removal was issued under the first proviso to article 179(c) of the Constitution.

"It is a Constitutional obligation on the part of the governor to ensure that the resolution for removal of the Speaker is expeditiously placed before the Legislative Assembly," the release said.

It also said that not following of the Constitution by the governor would send wrong a message to the people, particularly to those who had filed the notice.