Chandigarh, Sep 21 (PTI) Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain on Wednesday said when there is no doubt on majority, the Assembly session cannot be summoned for "confidence motion only".

"Under the Rules of Conduct of Business of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Rule 58 provides for the no-confidence motion. There is no rule which provides for confidence motion only," Jain told PTI over the phone.

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The special session had been called by the Bhagwant Mann government amid a political slugfest with the BJP. AAP had accused the BJP of trying to topple its government in Punjab.

The party had recently claimed that at least 10 of its MLAs were approached by the BJP with an offer of Rs 25 crore to each in a bid to topple the six-month-old government under its "Operation Lotus".

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With 92 MLAs, AAP has an overwhelming majority in the 117-member Punjab Assembly while the Congress has 18, SAD three, BJP two and BSP one. The Assembly also has an Independent member.

The Cabinet had approved the recommendation to be sent to the governor for summoning the special session of the House under Article 174 (1) of the Constitution.

However, acting on a legal advice from Jain, Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Wednesday withdrew his order of summoning the special session on September 22, citing absence of specific rules regarding convening the Assembly for considering a "confidence motion only".

"Confidence motion can be moved only if either the governor asks the chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the House or the governor has any doubt whether the CM enjoys the majority support or not, or if there is a no-confidence motion and the council of ministers is avoiding calling the session," Jain said.

"When there is no doubt about all these things, no doubt about the majority, no request by the governor, then session cannot be called only for this purpose," he said.

The governor's decision came after Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma gave representations to him that there was no legal provision to convene a special session to move "confidence motion only", according to a communication by the office of the principal secretary to the governor.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)