Tuesday, January 24 2006 11:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Jan 24, 2006) held that Governor Buta Singh acted in undue haste in sending his report, which led to the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly.

A five-judge constitution bench by a majority judgement of 3:2 said the full motive of the Governor was to prevent Janata Dal-United (JD-U) from claiming stake for government formation in the state.

The court held that the Governor mislead the Union Council of Ministers by sending the report containing unascertained facts.

The majority judgement was passed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice B N Agarwal and Justice Ashok Bhan.

The minority view was taken by Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Arijit Passayat.

The court said though Governor is a main player but the Council of Ministers should have verified the report before accepting it as gospel truth.

The bench held that the Governor enjoyed complete immunity and is not answerable in exercise of constitutional power but Article 361 does not take away from the court the power to deal with the validity of his action.