Govt. defends President's decision to invite Sonia in '99

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 10. The Centre today strongly defended the President, Mr. K.R. Narayanan's decision to invite the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, to explore the possibility of putting in place an alternative Government after the fall of the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government by one vote in the Lok Sabha in 1999.

In an affidavit submitted before a Division Bench comprising Mr. Justice Devinder Gupta and Mr. Justice S.K. Kaul, the Centre said ``the President has acted within the basic framework of the Constitution and his action has the mandate of the Constitution and is intra-vires the power of the President as conferred upon him by the Constitution...''

Urging the Bench to dismiss the public interest litigation petition by the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha (RMM), a non-governmental organisation, challenging the President's action, the affidavit said the President's action could not be assailed by the petitioner before the court, and as such it was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed.

The RMM had challenged the President's action on the ground that Ms. Sonia Gandhi did not fulfil the necessary requirements to hold a public office as she was not a natural-born citizen of India and had acquired the citizenship of the country under the Citizenship Act 1955.

The Centre's affidavit said the petitioner's plea was not worth considering as the Constitution conferred only one kind of citizenship on the people under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and, hence, it did not make any distinction between the ``single class'' of citizens.

``Once a citizenship is acquired under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, there is no distinction in the citizens thereafter either under Article 5 of the Constitution or the Citizenship Act, 1955,'' the affidavit said.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Gandhi was a citizen of India. The apex court pronounced the judgment disposing of a petition challenging the Congress president's election to the Lok Sabha from Amethi.

The affidavit further said the President, as alleged by the petitioner, had not violated any well-established, correct, reasonably precise, obligatory or specific Constitutional conventions. The President acted correctly in the facts and the circumstances of the matter.

The Government also denied that petitioner's allegation that the President's action did not have the sanction of the Parliamentary-Constitutional conventions or that the President had disregarded any alleged established Constitutional conventions.

It denied the President had acted with any partiality by involving Ms. Gandhi in the exercise to explore the possibilities of forming an alternative Government to the Vajpayee Government which had been reduced to minority.

It further denied the President had set any dangerous precedent by involving Ms. Gandhi in the exercise. No questions of vital importance had been thrown up or had arisen by the action of the President.

On the submission of the petitioner that Ms. Gandhi was not eligible to fight election to Parliament, the affidavit said the plea was misplaced as any person who fulfils the qualifications laid down in the Constitution may contest the election.

The matter will come up on December 4 for further hearing.

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