The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition which challenged the appointment of Mayawati as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh without her resigning from the Rajya Sabha saying that it did not have merit.
A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P P Naolekar said the matter had already been decided by the court. “The inevitable conclusion is that this petition sans merit and deserves to be dismissed,” observes the bench.
Filing the public suit, Ashok Pandey, an advocate from Uttar Pradesh, had sought the direction of the apex court to the government to disqualify Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) chief Mayawati and Satish Chandra Mishra.
Ms Mayawati and Mr Mishra had been appointed chief minister and a cabinet minister respectively in the state as they were members of Rajya Sabha.  While quoting the Prohibitions of Simultaneous Membership Rules 1950, the bench said the Constitution provides that the person would lose the seat earlier held unless specifically mentioned within 14 days of the publication of his name in the gazette of India or of the state.
The judgment said there was nothing in the constitution which would make the appointment of the Chief Minister or a minister illegal on the ground that they were not the members of the state legislature.
Citing the rulings in the Har Sharan Verma vs Tribhuvan Narain Singh, the court said, “the appointment of a person as chief minister cannot be challenged on the ground that he was not a member of the legislature at the time of appointment.”
The basic stand is that since they were members of the Rajya Sabha, the requirement of their being elected to the state legislative assembly within a period of 6 months does not apply to them, argued the petitioner appearing-in-person on Monday.
The petition also challenged the continuation of all state ministers as the Governor had appointed them on the advice of a disqualified and unconstitutionally-appointed chief minister. All the decisions taken by her government be declared null and void, he prayed in the petition.
“The constitution permits a non-legislator to become the Prime Minister, Chief Minister or Minister in case he or she undertakes to contest the election and become a legislator within a period of six months,” said the petition.
“But since both Mayawati and Mishra are already MPs of Rajya Sabha, they were not entitled to claim their appointment under the non-legislator class unless they resign their membership of parliament and become a non-legislator,” said Mr Pandey.
He cited earlier instances when a MP had been appointed chief minister and said politicians were continuing unconstitutional acts. Such appointments would also offend the office of profit law since an MP could not get pay and allowances both as a member of parliament and a minister in a state.