New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday referred to the question of who should be invited to form a government when a post-poll alliance appears to have the numerical edge over the largest single party in a hung House.
It eventually decided to "lay down guidelines", agreeing to examine the legal validity of Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala's invite to the BJP's B.S. Yeddyurappa this week.
The Congress-Janata Dal Secular alliance had petitioned against Vala's decision, saying he had ignored its claim of having 117 MLAs and decided in favour of Yeddyurappa, who had just 104 MLAs and a vague promise of support from "others".
The bench of Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde and Ashok Bhushan said they would hear the matter after 10 weeks, giving the BJP and the state government six weeks to respond and the petitioners four subsequent weeks to file a rejoinder if they wanted.
"We will test the validity of the governor's action when he has two sets of letters, one with majority support (Congress-JDS) and one without majority support. The governor cannot ignore such claims and invite the leader of the single largest party," Justice Sikri, who headed the bench, said.
But he appeared to agree at least partially with the questions raised by chief minister Yeddyurappa's counsel Mukul Rohatgi about the legitimacy of post-poll alliances, such as the one between the Congress and the JDS.
"As per the Sarkaria Commission (set up in 1983 to examine the Centre-state relationship and balance of power) recommendations, if there is a pre-poll alliance, the leader of the pre-poll alliance has to be invited first (if it's the largest single group)," Justice Sikri said
"If there is no pre-poll alliance, the leader of the single largest party will be invited to form the government. Regarding the third option of post-poll alliance, the Sarkaria commission recommendation (of inviting it if it has the numbers) has no legal credence. We will examine this and lay down guidelines.
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