NEW DELHI, 12 June 2007 — Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has ordered the transfer of at least 1,000 officials since she was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh chief minister on May 13. However, all her actions could be nullified if India’s Supreme Court finds her holding the office of chief minister illegally.
A Lucknow-based lawyer, Ashok Pandey, has filed a petition in the court arguing that Mayawati cannot hold the office of chief minister of Uttar Pradesh as she is a member of the Rajya Sabha, or the upper house of Parliament. Hence all her actions as chief minister are illegal, his petition said. A vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Arijit Pasavat and P.P. Naolekar heard the petitioner and counsel for Mayawati, Shail Kumar Dwivedi, yesterday. The bench reserved its judgment.
Pandey, who is also president of the Hindu Personal Law Board, said that under constitutional provisions, a legislator has to resign his seat before getting elected to the state legislature. Pandey argued that appointments of Mayawati as chief minister and Satish Chandra Mishra as a minister in Uttar Pradesh are illegal and unconstitutional as both are members of the Rajya Sabha and cannot hold ministerial positions without resigning from Parliament. The court should issue a “quo warranto” (court’s direction to a particular authority to explain under what authority he/she was discharging such powers) to Mayawati and Mishra, Pandey said.
Citing Article 164 (4) of the constitution, the petitioner said that even a nonmember of the legislative assembly can be appointed as a minister, provided he/she gets elected to the assembly within six months from the date of appointment. This also applies to the post of prime minister or minister at the federal level, Pandey said.
“The constitution permits a nonlegislator to become prime minister, chief minister or a minister in case he or she undertakes to contest the election and become a legislator within a period of six months,” Pandey said.
“But since both Mayawati and Mishra are members of the Rajya Sabha, they are not entitled to claim their appointment under the nonlegislator class unless they resign their membership of Parliament and become a nonlegislator,” Pandey argued.
The Supreme Court must determine the constitutionality of legislators becoming chief ministers without resigning their office as members of Parliament, the petitioner urged.
With her appointment being unconstitutional, the petitioner said, the court should quash all decisions taken by Mayawati since May 13, 2007.
