Former Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi (Source: PTI) Former Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi (Source: PTI)

Terming it as a “very serious” matter, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked who can demand the Governor’s resignation, and sought the government’s response on the issue.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur was hearing a petition filed by former Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi and former Puducherry Lt Governor Virendra Kataria.

The Centre told the court that its home secretary had not asked Qureshi to resign, but had merely sought his opinion in a “friendly” manner.

“Union home secretary is the nodal officer for the Ministry of Home Affairs and he can thus make calls. But he did not demand resignation of the then Governor. The President had asked him to seek views of the Governor over some controversial statements attributed to the Governor in the media,” Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the bench.

But the bench pointed out: “There seems to be no written communication to the Governor. We would like to know under what circumstances the home secretary called the Governor. It is a very serious matter.”

Rohatgi replied that home secretaries are usually “friendly” with the Governors due to their frequent communications and that then home secretary Anil Goswami would have spoken to Qureshi in the same manner.

To this, the bench asked the AG “whether being friendly is different from being friends” and asked if it is appropriate for a home secretary to casually ask a Governor to quit.

The bench also took note of Goswami’s personal secretary calling up former Lt Governor of Puducherry Virendra Kataria, asking him to resign, and said that it is “very surprising” that anybody could simply pick up the phone and ask a constitutional functionary to quit.

“We may have to lay down a format for communications with such high constitutional dignitaries… there is a need to see how these things should work in a constitutional scheme,” said the bench.

It then asked the AG and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to explain who can demand the Governor’s resignation, and issued notices for filing replies in both the matters.

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