The Uttarakhand High Court verdict quashing the President’s rule in the state and reviving the Congress Government headed by Harish Rawat comes as a big blow to the BJP-led Govt at the Centre at a time when Assembly elections to the five states are on, but with the state moving Supreme Court on Friday. The whole issue has taken a new turn. Now the Supreme Court has stayed High Court order. The stay would undo the revival of the Congress Government led by Harish Rawat by the High Court judgement on Thursday. High Court had set aside the Central rule and observed that material considered for imposing President’s rule has been ‘found wanting’ shows the mischief of the BJP central rulers to keep the rule in hand remotely. The verdict also negated Centre’s stand that there was breakdown of constitutional machinery as a plea. The move could be seen as BJP wanted to go to Assembly polls with a victory wrested in Uttarakhand and diminishing Congress existence. But now it looks the move has backfired. Before dissolving Rawat government Governor should have carried out a floor test to determine the legitimacy of the state government. Nine Congress MLAs had been disqualified by the Speaker under the anti-defection law. BJP argued that the Appropriations Bill was passed without a division of votes, the Chief Minister argues that it was constitutionally passed. But either way, the Court stressed, there was no basis for the Centre to intervene on the day before the Rawat government was to prove its majority. Instead of following procedure, the Governor warned of political volatility and pandemonium on the day of the trust vote, the Prime Minister called an emergency Cabinet meeting, and President’s rule was proclaimed. The only constitutional way to test majority was to hold the floor test. A state government’s existence could no longer be upturned at the whim of the Central Government. The present experimentation can have adverse ramification in the Centre-state relations. The politics of vengeance does not go well in a democratic setup unless and until the BJP Central leadership wants to have an autocratic government. Neither the Court verdict is a victory for Congress but for the democratic system the country has nurtured for so long.