SC refuses to fix date for hearing on Governors' issue

NEW DELHI, JULY 6 (UNI)The Supreme Court today declined to give an early date of hearing on a plea seeking quashing of a Presidential order dismissing governors of UP, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa and a direction to allow them to complete their term.

A three-judge bench conprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice G P Mathur and Justice A K Mathur said,''We will examine when it comes for hearing''.

The order came in reponse to a request made by the counsel for the petitioner who approached the bench for an early date of hearing.

The Public Interest Litigation by former rpt former BJP Rajya Sabha member B P Singhal cites Union Home Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary as respondents.

The petitoner has contended that the July 2 Presidential order removing Vishnukant Shastri, Kailashpati Mishra, Babu Parmanand and Kidarnath Sahni -- Governors of UP, Gujarat, Haryana and Goa respectively -- was ''illegal, arbitary and unconstitutional''.

''The union government has done it for purely political reasons in order to enforce its political agenda and this was the first step in the dismissal of the four state governments,'' the petitioner alleged.