The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on the ground that she was a sitting parliamentarian and hence was required to vacate her Parliament seat.
A bench comprising Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice P P Naolekar held that there was no merit in the petition as the apex court had earlier decided on similar issues raised before it.
The petition was filed by a Uttar Pradesh-based advocate Ashok Pandey who claimed that the appointment of Mayawati and her Cabinet colleague S C Mishra was illegal as the two were sitting lawmakers and failed to resign their Parliament seats before becoming ministers at the state level.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Constitutional validity of Members of Parliament being appointed as ministers in the state and asserted that there was no necessity for an MP to vacate his/her seat at the time of being made a chief minister or minister.
The requirement mandated by Article 164 (4) on a minister being elected to the legislature within six months of such appointment, applied only to a non-member, but not to an MP, a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P P Naolekar said while hearing the plea for dismissal of Mayawati and her cabinet colleague S C Mishra from their posts.
Citing its various earlier rulings, including the 1997 judgment on the then prime minister Deve Gowda, the apex court said there was no embargo on a legislator being made a prime minister or an MP becoming a chief minister.
In the Deve Gowda case, a person Janak Raj Jai had challenged his appointment to the post of prime minister on the ground that he had not resigned his Karnataka Legislative Assembly seat and hence should be disqualified.