Punjab govt's plea against Gov refusing to call budget session to be heard by SC

New Delhi: The Punjab government has petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the state governor's refusal to schedule the Assembly's budget session on March 3.

The Punjab government was represented by senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who brought up the case for an urgent hearing before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha.

Singhvi argued that the Governor had stated he would not call the meeting because the chief minister had made some statements regarding unrelated topics.

The top court then scheduled the matter for hearing at 3.50 p.m. on Tuesday.

Last week, Governor Banwarilal Purohit said that he will decide on allowing the proposed Budget session of the state slated on March 3 only after seeking legal advice on the "derogatory and patently unconstitutional tweets and letter" written by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The council of ministers had recommended that the budget session be held from March 3-24 and a letter seeking the Governor's approval was sent to him.

In the letter, Purohit reproduced the tweets and letters sent by the Chief Minister on February 13 and 14 in response to his letter.

On February 13, the Governor had slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government by questioning decisions taken by it in the past couple of weeks, including a lack of transparency in selecting teachers to be sent to Singapore for training.

He had also questioned the appointment of a "tainted" person as chairperson of Punjab Infotech, saying he was accused in property grabbing and kidnapping cases.

The Governor had sought the criteria and details of the entire selection process of Principals for sending them to Singapore as there were allegations of "no transparency".

With inputs from IANS