Uttarakhand HC notice to Maharashtra governor on contempt plea

NAINITAL: The Uttarakhand HC on Tuesday sought Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s response on a plea for starting contempt proceeding against him for his failure to follow a court order to pay market rent for a government bungalow allocated to him as a former CM.
Justice Sharad Kumar issued notice to Koshyari through his counsel after hearing arguments of the petitioner’s counsel on maintainability of the contempt plea.
The plea, filed by Dehradun-based NGO Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), accuses Koshyari of committing “willful non-compliance” of the court’s May 3, 2019 order which had asked him to pay market rent of the bungalow occupied by him as ex-CM within six months of the direction. Koshyari has till date not paid the market rent to the government as calculated against him, the petition said.
In May 2019, the court had directed four former chief ministers – Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, BC Khanduri, Vijay Bahuguna and Bhagat Singh Koshyari – to pay the market rate for the services they availed after demitting the office of the CM. While the SC stayed the contempt proceedings against Bahuguna and Khanduri, the proceedings against Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank are still on.
The court will now hear Koshyari's case along with the contempt case against Nishank. Speaking to TOI, Kartikey Hari Gupta, the lawyer appearing for RLEK, said that though there were questions about the maintainability of the petition, he has complied with the requirement under Article 361. Article 361 grants immunity to the sitting governors as well as President of India from any court proceedings against them.
However, constitutional experts say that that immunity is only for criminal cases while, in this case, the notice has been issued under a civil contempt proceeding. Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, however, said that the development is a rarity and it is difficult to recall an instance when this happened earlier.