Read the Uttarakhand High Court’s 99-page judgment on President’s Rule

The April 21 decision the Uttarakhand High Court, one that has been “kept in abeyance” by the Supreme Court, has finally been uploaded on the court’s website..On April 21, the High Court had directed a floor test to be held on April 29, and had come down harshly on the imposition of President’s Rule..Here are some of the excerpts from the judgment delivered by Chief Justice KM Joseph and VK Bisht J..“What is the soul of the matter is whether, in the federal / quasi-federal set-up we have, it is open to the Central Government to get rid of State Governments uprooting the democratically elected Governments and introduce the attendant chaos in the system undermining the confidence of a little man, who stands with a little white paper, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, to cast his precious vote battling snow, the scorching heat and the rain.” [Para 43]“Starting from 18.03.2016, the BJP had, even according to the learned Attorney General, ‘come out in the open with the 9 dissident Members of Congress’. When they write a letter to the President, we do not see how it can at all be taken at its face value. We do not think that it can be the material in the first place de hors any other objective material, for the imposition of President’s Rule. It would, if it has been taken into consideration, be entirely extraneous and irrelevant, as the imposition of President’s Rule would obviously be to the advantage of the BJP.” [Para 58]“We may just summarize and state that the present case, which was set into motion with 18.03.2016 as day one and saw an unfolding of events culminating in the Proclamation being issued in less than 10 days on 27.03.2016, brings to the fore a situation, where Article 356 has been used contrary to the law laid down by the Apex Court.” [Para 96]Read the full text of the judgment below..You can read the Centre’s appeal against the High Court’s decision here.