The Governor has the power and obligation to verify the Chief Minister's majority support, even without the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, to ensure democratic norms and constitutional obligations.

Hrishikesh Roy, J.

On urgent mention, this Writ Appeal is listed today in a supplementary list with due permission.

2. The challenge in the Writ Appeal is to the order dated 18.7.2017 (Annexure-3) in the Kohima Bench, whereby the WP(C) No.124(K)/2017 filed by the appellant was dismissed. The consequential direction issued by the Governor to the Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, to convene an emergent special session for the floor test on 19.7.2017 is also challenged by the appellant/writ petitioner Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu.

3. We have heard Mr. P.K. Goswami, the learned Senior Counsel for the appellant/writ petitioner. Mr. S.S. Dey, the learned Senior Counsel appears for the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (respondent No.1). The former Chief Minister Mr. T.R. Zeliang (respondent No.2) who claimed majority support of the MLAs and projected that Council of Ministers headed by Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu lost his majority, is represented by the learned Senior Counsel Mr. N. Dutta.

4. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly is a 60 Member House but one of the seats is vacant and therefore, along with the Speaker, the current strength of the House is 59 Members. Following the resignation of the then Chief Minister Mr. T.R. Zeliang (respondent No.2), the writ petitioner was the choice of the MLAs and on 22.2.2017 he was sworn in as the Chief Minister. As the chosen leader was not a Member of the Assembly, the bye-election was scheduled on 29.7.2017, whereby the writ petitioner intended to make entry as MLA in the House.

5. The Nagaland Assembly is without any opposition MLA and the ruling group is constituted by 47 MLAs from the Naga Peoples Front (NPF), 4 MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 8 Independent MLAs. The MLAs of the JDU and the NCP had merged with the NPF and the writ petitioner headed a government known as the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN).

6. The move for replacement of the Chief Minister was started with the meeting held on 4.7.2017 in the residence of Mr. T.R. Zeliang (respondent No.2) where majority of the MLAs withdrew their support for the writ petitioner and authorized the respondent to stake claim for formation of new Government. Then the respondent No.2 addressed the letter dated 8.7.2017 (Page-51) to the Governor of Nagaland enclosing the documents to indicate the support of 34 NPF and 7 Independent MLAs (total 41) in the 59 Member House. Thus demand was made for ouster of the Council of Minister headed by the writ petitioner. The respondent No.2 accordingly made a request to the Governor for the invitation to form a new Government with the majority of the MLAs, aligned in his favour.

7. After receiving the letter from the respondent No.2, where the majority support in a 59 Member House was claimed, the Governor felt that the Chief Minister should prove his majority in a floor test in the Legislative Assembly and accordingly under his letter of 11.7.2017 (Page-65), the Governor requested the writ petitioner to secure the vote of confidence on or before 15.7.2017.

8. The writ petitioner in his response letter of 11.7.2017 (Page-66) pleaded that the activities of the 37 NPF MLAs is an internal party matter to be resolved in the party forum and need not be considered in the floor of the House. Referring to the scheduled bye-election for the 10th Northern Angami-I Constituency, the Chief Minister conveyed the views of the Council of Ministers that there is no justification for convening an emergent special session of the Nagaland Assembly. Another letter was addressed by the writ petitioner on 11.7.2017 to the Speaker where it was projected that the Assembly can be summoned only on the advice of the Council of Ministers and since no advice is tendered to the Governor, the summoning of State Assembly at the instance of the Governor, would be unjustified.

9. Reacting to the above plea of the writ petitioner, the Governor in his response on 13.7.2017 (Page-72), noted that the Chief Min