Supreme Court of India Rameshwar Prasad & Ors vs Union Of India & Anr on 24 January, 2006 CASE NO.: Writ Petition (civil) 257 of 2005 PETITIONER: Rameshwar Prasad & Ors. RESPONDENT: Union of India & Anr. DATE OF JUDGMENT: 24/01/2006 Y.K. Sabharwal CJI & K.G. Balakrishnan & B.N. Agrawal & Ashok Bhan & Arijit Pasayat JUDGMENT: JUDGMENT Delivered by Y.K. Sabharwal, CJI K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, J ARIJIT PASAYAT J. [With W.P. (C) No.255 of 2005, W.P. (C) No.258 of 2005 and W.P.(C) No.353 of 2005 Y.K. Sabharwal, CJI. The challenge in these petitions is to the constitutional validity of Notification dated 23rd May, 2005 ordering dissolution of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Bihar. It is a unique case. Earlier cases that came up before this Court were those where the dissolutions of Assemblies were ordered on the ground that the parties in power had lost the confidence of the House. The present case is of its own kind where before even the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly, its dissolution has been ordered on the ground that attempts are being made to cobble a majority by illegal means and lay claim to form the Government in the State and if these attempts continue, it would amount to tampering with constitutional provisions. One of the questions of far reaching consequence that arises is whether the dissolution of Assembly under Article 356(1) of the Constitution of India can be ordered to prevent the staking of claim by a political party on the ground that the majority has been obtained by illegal means. We would first note the circumstances which led to the issue of impugned notification. Factual Background Election to the State of Bihar was notified by the Election Commission on 17th December, 2004. Polling for the said elections were held in three phases, i.e., 3rd February, 2005, 5th February, 2005 and 13th February, 2005. Counting of votes took place on 27th February, 2005. Results of the said elections were declared by the Election Commission. On 4th March, 2005, Notification was issued by the Election Commission in pursuance of Section 73 of Representation of People Act, 1951 (for short 'the RP Act, 1951') duly notifying the names of the members elected for all the constituencies along with party affiliation. Bihar Legislative Assembly comprises of 243 members and to secure an absolute majority support of 122 Members of Legislative Assembly (in short 'MLAs'), is required. National Democratic Alliance (for short 'NDA'), a political coalition of parties comprising of the Bharatiya Janata Party (for short 'BJP') and the Janata Dal (United) (for short 'JD(U)') was the largest prepoll combination having the support of 92 MLAs. The partywise strength in the Assembly was as under: "(1) NDA 92 (2) RJD 75 (3) LJP 29 (4) Congress (I) 10 (5) CPI (ML) 07 (6) Samajwadi Party 04 (7) NCP 03 (8) Bahujan Samaj Party02 (9) Independents 17 (10) Others 09" Report dated 6th March, 2005 was sent by the Governor to the President, recommending newly constituted Assembly to be kept in suspended animation for the present. It reads as under: "Respected Rashtrapati Jee, The present Bihar Legislative Assembly has come to an end on 6th March, 2005. The Election Commission's notification with reference to the recent elections in regard to constitution of the new Assembly issued vide No. 308/B.R.L.A./2005 dated 4th March 2005 and 464/BiharLA/2005, dated the 4th March, 2005 is enclosed (AnnexureI) 2. Based on the results that have come up, the following is the partywise position: 1. R.J.D. : 75 2. J.D.(U) : 55 3. B.J.P. : 37 4. Cong(I) : 10 5. B.S.P. : 02 6. L.J.P. : 29 7. C.P.I. : 03 8. C.P.I.(M) : 01 9. C.P.I.(M.L.): 07 10. N.C.P. : 03 11. S.P. : 04 12. Independent: 17 243 ________________________ The R.J.D. and its alliance position is as follows: 1. R.J.D. : 75 2. Cong.(I) : 10 3. C.P.I. : 03 (support letter not recd.) 4. C.P.I.(M) : 01 5. N.C.P. : 03 _________________________ 92 _________________________ The N.D.A. alliance position is as follows: 1. B.J.P. : 37 2. J.D.(U) : 55 92 _______________________ 3. The present C.M., Bihar, Smt. Rabri Devi met me on 28.2.2005 and submitted her resignation along with her Council of Ministers. I have accepted the same and asked her to continue till an alternative arrangement is made. 4. A delegation of members of LJP met me in the afternoon of 28.2.2005 and they submitted a letter (Annexure II) signed by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, President of the Party, stating therein that they will neither support the RJD nor the BJP in the formation of Government. The State President of Congress Party, Shri Ram Jatan Sinha, also