Uttarakhand crisis: Rattled by HC order, Centre to approach SC today

New Delhi: Rattled by the Uttarakhand High Court's order, BJP chief Amit Shah and senior ministers on Thursday went into a huddle and decided that the government will move the Supreme Court on Friday challenging the judgement quashing the proclamation of President's rule. After the meeting, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was present in the meeting, said he will mention the matter before the bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur on Friday and seek a stay on the HC verdict. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a legal luminary himself, Nripendra Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, besides Rohatgi met at Shah's house and deliberated on the implications of the HC order and the options before the party and the government. Source said that Jaitley, who returned from the US earlier in the day, and others felt that there were enough grounds to challenge the order which is being seen as a big blow to the Modi government. They said the Centre will tell the Supreme Court that failure of the Appropriation Bill to get approval of the Uttarakhand Assembly and disqualification of nine rebel Congress MLAs "arbitrarily" were some of the grounds to impose President's rule in the hill state. The government is also expected to submit that Governor K K Paul's four subsequent reports had given "enough" grounds for proclamation of President's rule. Even though the lengthy order of the division bench of the High Court is likely to be available only early next week, the central government armed with the operating part of the directive will seek a stay, official sources said