The President's Proclamation under Article 356 is not open to judicial review.

Mehar Singh, J.

1. In this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution the petitioner, Rao Birinder Singh, former Chief Minister of Haryana State, seeks a writ, order or direction quashing the Presidents Proclamation, Hated November 21, 1967, Annexure A, on the ground that it is unconstitutional and illegal.

2. The total number of members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly is 81. In the last General Election held in 1967, the members returned to the Assembly were 48 Congress, 12 Jan Sangh, 3 Swatantra, 2 Republican Party and 16 Independents. So the Congress party had a majority and formed the Government with Mr. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma as the Chief Minister on March 10. 1967. The Congress party suffered a set back on March 17, 1967, when the official Congress nominee for the office of the Speaker was defeated on account of 12 Congress members, including the petitioner, voting against him, and in fact the petitoner was elected the Speaker. So 12 Congress members defected from that party. On March 22, 1967, the Congress Ministry resigned. The petitioner was elected leader of the Haryana Samyukta Dal which mustered strength of 47 members whereupon on March 24, 1967, he formed a Ministry of the Haryana Samyukta Dal with himself as the Chief Minister.

3. Thereafter there were efforts to win over members on both sides and so defections followed, but the petitioner continued to command a majority. The Governor of Haryana in his report, dated November 17, 1967, addressed to the President, newspaper copy Annexure B, after giving a brief narration of the circumstances in which defections continued from one party to the other, proceeds to say-

"The defections have become very frequent The opposition could never reconcile itself to its position as a responsible opposition. *** The Government has also sought to maintain itself precariously in power by creating too many Ministers which is an abuse of its Constitutional powers. Such large numbers of Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries numbering at one stage 23 out of the ruling partys strength of 41, and 22 now out of total strength of 40, cannot be justified on any grounds of administrative requirement. The position is even worse if it is remebered that the 10 Jan Sangh members in the Samyukta Dal have not accepted any office as Ministers, so that in reality, 22 out of the 30 remaining M.L.A.s are holding office. With all its good intentions, the Government cannot do much for the people because it is being kept preoccupied all the time with the problem of its very survival. Administration is paralysed. With such a thin majority, individual M. L. A.s are able to make extravagant demands, x x x It is bad enough that political support is being sought by offering Ministerial offices at the cost of the taxpayer, but what is worse is that individual members of the Legislature have realised their own importance. They can interfere in administration with impunity and make demands which, even if they are unreasonable, can hardly be resisted by the Chief Minister. With the best will in the world, the Chief Minister cannot refuse to oblige his partymen because of the constant threat of defections. Since the loyalty of its followers is so flexible, the exact majority of the ruling party is not of any consequence. (After referring to allegations about securing of support through corruption, bribery, political victimisation and distribution of offices, the report goes on to say.) While it is difficult to say how far these allegations are true, there are good reasons to believe that the defections are being secured by not too honourable means. Opportunist legislators, whose number is fairly large, can wield tremendous power by threats of transferring their loyalties. They can do, and are doing incalculabe damage by interfering in administration. Too frequent transfers at their instance is demoralishing the services. Since premature transfers cause a lot of inconvenience, junior offic