Wednesday, March 9 2005 15:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Mar 9, 2005) ordered that the floor test in the Jharkhand Assembly be held on March 11 instead of March 15 as scheduled.

The Court said no ango-Indian member would be nominated till the floor test takes place.

A three-judge Bench of the Court headed by Chief Justice R C Lahoti said the agenda in the Assembly on March 11 would be to have a floor test between the contesting political groups to see which of the two claimants- Shibu Soren and Arjun Munda- command majority in the House.

The court issued a veiled warning for keeping the proceedings of the House on March 11 to be peaceful and disturbance-free and said any disturbance would be viewed seriously.

It also directed the pro-tem speaker to report the outcome of the floor test faithfully to the court.

The court ordered video recording of the proceedings and directed that a copy of the recording be placed before the court.

The order of the court shall constitute the notice required for convening the Assembly on March 11 and no separate notice for the purpose would be required, the court directed.

The court directed the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Jharkhand to see that all elected MLAs attend the Assembly and cast their vote safely, freely and securely.

They also directed these two authorities to see that nobody influences the proceedings of the house on March 11.

The Court said that it is passing this interim order as its petitioner Munda has made out a strong prima facie case by pointing out the manner in which Soren has been appointed as Chief Minister.