L.S. Jamir, J.

The present writ petitioner is the Chief Minister of Nagaland and he has filed this writ petition challenging the letter dated 13-07-2017 by which the Governor of Nagaland has requested the petitioner to positively prove his majority by obtaining vote of confidence on the floor of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on or before 15-07-2017. A further prayer has been made to allow time to the petitioner to obtain the vote of confidence on the floor of the House after the bye-election to the 10th Northern Angami-1 Assembly Constituency which is to be held on 29-07-2017.

2. Initially, the writ petition was filed with the Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly as the sole representative. The writ petition was moved unlisted on 14-07-2017 and on which date, after considering the case of the petitioner, this Court passed an interim order staying the letter dated 13-07-2017 till 17-07-2017. When the matter was called up on 17-07-2017, objections were made for non-impleadment of Shri T.R. Zeliang along with his supporters by the respondent No.1. After considering the matter, learned senior counsel for the petitioner made an oral submission for impleading Shri T.R. Zeliang as respondent No. 2 which was not objected to. There upon, Mr. C.S. Vaidyanathan, learned senior counsel immediately entered appearance on behalf of the newly impleaded respondent No. 2. It was also the contention of the learned senior counsels appearing for the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 that they will not file any affidavit in the matter inasmuch as, the facts are not disputed and the arguments would be made only on the questions of law. Accordingly, instead of considering the interim as directed by this Court on 14-07-2017, the parties have agreed to go for a final disposal of the matter on merits.

3. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly consists of 60 elected members. At present, 1 (one) seat is vacant and 1 (one) seat is held by the Speaker of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. The Government has been formed by the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland ( for short "DAN") which initially consisted of elected members from the Naga Peoples Front (for short " NPF"), Bharatiya Janata Party (for short " BJP") National Congress Party (for short " NCP"), Janata Dal (U) and Independent. Thereafter, the elected members consisting of 1 (one) from Janata Dal (U) and 4 (four) from the NCP merged with the NPF. It is important to note that in the present Nagaland Legislative Assembly there is no opposition in the House.

4. On 20-02-2017 in a meeting of the NPF legislature party, a resolution was passed electing the petitioner unanimously as the new leader of the NPF legislature party with immediate effect. On the same date, i.e 20-02-2017, the DAN legislature party passed a resolution unanimously electing the petitioner as the new leader of the DAN legislature party with immediate effect. Thereafter, the petitioner took over as the Chief Minister replacing the then Chief Minister Shri T.R. Zeliang/respondent No. 2.

5. A meeting of the NPF legislature party was held at Dimapur on 02-07-2017 wherein, amongst others, it was resolved to empower the respondent No. 2 to form a new DAN Government forthwith and he was also empowered to stake claim before the Governor in that behalf. Accordingly, the respondent No. 2 wrote a letter to the Governor of Nagaland on 08-07-2017 stating that at the meeting of the Legislature Party of the NPF held on 04-07-2017 at his residence at Dimapur, 35 NPF MLAs, including him, out of 47 supported the respondent No. 2 to continue as the leader of the Legislature Party of the NPF and also authorized him to stake claim to form a new NPF led DAN Government in Nagaland. In the said letter, it was also stated that the MLAs also urged the present Chief Minister who is a non-MLA to resign and pave way for the respondent No. 2 to take over as