Sabyasachi Mukharji, J. - (1.) The petitioner in this application is a citizen of India. In his application filed under Article 226 of the Constitution on 3rd of September 1979 he has asked for a rule nisi upon the two respondents to show cause under what authority the respondent no. 1 and his colleagues resolved to advice the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha on 20th of August, 1979 and also a rule nisi upon the respondents to show cause why writ or order or direction in the nature of quo warranto should not be issued calling upon Choudhuri Charan Singh to show cause why he should not be removed from the office of the Prime Minister. The petitioner also prays for an ad interim order of injunction restraining the respondent no. 1 from functioning as the Prime Minister of India till the disposal of the petition. After the application was filed it came up in the list on the 4th of September 1979 and instead of issuing a rule nisi I directed the respondents to file affidavits and the respondents have filed affidavits and I have heard this matter as a contested application.
(2.) It is not necessary for me to set out in detail the events that took place after the monsoon session of the Union Parliament began on the 9th of July, 1979. These events are of very recent origin and are fresh in public memory. It is not necessary to recapitulate them and these have been practically in near exhaustive manner set out in the Full Bench decision of the Madras High Court in the case of S. Ramaswami v. Sri Charan Singh (W.P. No. 3671 of 1979), and O. V. Alagesan v. Union of India (W.P. No. 3742 of 1979), The judgment was delivered on 10-10-1979. I will only, therefore, refer to certain relevant facts which are necessary for the purpose of determining the issues involved in this case. It is necessary to set out the contents of certain letters. The first one is the letter whereby the President invited the respondent No. 1 to become the Prime Minister of India and form the Government. It may be mentioned that before that the President had asked Sree Morarji Desai, leader of the Janata Party in Lok Sabha and who had prior thereto tendered resignation of himself and his Council of Ministers on 15th July. 1979 without facing the no-confidence motion and whose resignation had been accepted and who had been asked by the President "to continue in office fill a new Government is formed" had made his claim to form the new Government on the basis of his supporters. The President who had asked the respondent No. 1 to submit the list of his followers to judge his ability to form the Government had also submitted his list. Thereafter the following correspondence followed, The following is the text of the President's letter to Mr. Charan Singh: "Dear Mr. Charan Singh. Please refer to the correspondence resting with your letter dated 25th July and the discussion which your representatives and those of Mr. Morarji Desai held with my secretary yesterday evening and this morning. After consideration of all relevant aspects of the matter, I find that you enjoy the support of more members of the Lok Sabha than Mr. Morarji Desai. I, therefore, call upon you to form a Government. Please let me have the names of persons t'o be appointed to the Council of Ministers. I trust that in accordance with the highest democratic traditions and in the interest of establishing healthy conventions you would seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha at the earliest possible opportunity, say, by the third week of August 1979." Following is the text of Mr. Charan Singh's letter dated August, 20, 1979 addressed to the President of India. "My Dear Rashtrapatiji, The Cabinet met this morning and took a decision as follows:-- "We had formed the Government with a view to restoring effective democracy and secularism. We had further hoped that we would be able to bring light into the life of the deprived and the down-trodden, to restore confidence amongst the minorities and weaker sections which had badly been shaken especially during previous regime, we regret, however, that communal and authoritarian forces have conspired to defeat our aims of building a society, by and large, based on the teachings of Gandhiji. The Cabinet, therefore, decides to resign. It further resolves to advise the President that in view of the present situation, arrangements should be made for a fresh mandate being obtained from the People." In the light of the above, I hereby tender my resignation and that of my Counsil of Ministers. Further, I advise that in view of the present situation, arrangements may be made for a fresh mandate being obtained from the people. Yours Sincerely Sd/- Charan Singh"
(3.) I may incidentally mention that these two letters were not originally annexed by the respondents in their affi-davits-in-opposition in this case. But I had directed learned Additional Solicitor General to produce before me the copies of these two letters. The hearing of this application was adjourned for one day for this purpose. Learned Additional Solicitor General has informed me that those copies might be made available but that will take time as according to the contention production of these documents would require the personal sanction of the President and as the President was on tour out of the capital it would take a little time. But he very fairly submitted that he did not want to hold up the hearing of this application and on instruction on behalf of the respondents Nos. 1 and 2 he submitted to me these two reproductions of the newspaper reports of letters to be authentic copies of the letters and may be relied on by the Court.;