Nagaland crisis: Court to deliver verdict today

Guwahati: The Kohima bench of the Gauhati high court on Monday completed the hearing on chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu’s petition challenging the Nagaland governor’s order directing him to seek a vote of confidence on or before July 15.

The court of Justice L.S. Jamir, which had given an interim stay for hearing the argument on Monday, fixed 2 pm on Tuesday for pronouncing the judgment, giving the chief minister one more day to draw up his strategy.

The CM, in his petition before the high court on Friday, had argued that the governor’s decision asking him to take a floor test on or before July 15 was “unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary” and violated the basic features of the Constitution.

The rebel camp of the Nagaland People’s Front, meanwhile, criticised the chief minister on Monday for holding two posts. In a press statement in Kohima, the rebels said the “one-man-two-posts” Mr Shurhozelie and his 10 MLAs had misused the government machinery and completely tarnished the image of both the NPF and the CM’s office. “It is for the Naga people to realise that a chief minister in a minority and his 11 MLAs are turning out to be nothing more than imposters throttling the voice of Nagaland while turning the state into a laughing stock before the outside world.”

In an indication that a reconciliation was not possible now, the statement added: “Mr Shurhozelie should own moral responsibility (for the) NPF party crisis since the day MP Neiphiu Rio left for Delhi. He has not been honest to himself and party legislators as well... every Naga knows his true nature in public life.”