Madhya Pradesh HC issues notice in plea against appointment of 14 non-legislators as ministers

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notice in a plea challenging the appointment of 14 non-legislators to the Council of Ministers of the State. .The plea terms the move to appoint the persons in question as a "sheer abuse of the provisions of Article 164 of the Constitution of India only with a view to reward defection caused by such non-members"..The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjay Yadav and Justice Rajeev Kumar Dubey was hearing a plea filed by activist lawyer Aradhana Bhargava..The petition filed through Talekar & Associates and Advocate Dinesh Upadhyay has further challenged the constitution of Shivraj Singh Chauhan's Council of Ministers as being violative of the mandate of Article 164(1-A) It is stated that the Council was functioning at a strength of four ministers for over three months, contrary to the mandate of Article 164(1-A), which provides that the Council shall consist of a minimum of 12 ministers. It is the contention of the petitioner that such a defect is incurable..Advocate Satish Talekar, appearing for the petitioner, argued that the power under Article 164 of the Constitution of India was to be used sparingly and only in exceptional and extraordinary circumstances. "However, there existed no exceptional or extraordinary circumstances so as to appoint 14 non-legislators en-masse, particularly those who had defected from the political parties from which they had come elected", submitted Talekar. .Talekar further pointed out that two such non-legislators, who were appointed in the month of April, have ceased to be Ministers by virtue of the expiry of the six-month period from the date of their appointment as mandated by Article 164(4)..Making a reference to the events that followed post the resignation of Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Indian National Congress, the plea states that 22 MLAs resigned from the party in March, 14 of which were appointed Ministers despite not being Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)..After the Speaker had accepted the resignations of all 22 members by March 19, following orders of the Supreme Court, a floor test was conducted on March 20 which paved way for the BJP government in the state. .[Breaking] Madhya Pradesh Political Crisis: Supreme Court directs Floor Test to be held on March 20.Thereafter, on April 21, the Governor appointed five ministers to the Cabinet, out of which 2 were non-legislators. On July 2, 28 members were appointed to the Cabinet, out of which 12 were non-legislators, the petition states..The plea states that never in the history of any state government or Central government have fourteen ministers been appointed without being legislators at the time of being sworn in.."The appointment of these 14 non-legislators out of total 34 ministers in Madhya Pradesh Council of Ministers is an unprecedented travesty and a patent perversity, which mocks the nation’s democratic edifice and is sheer abuse of the provisions of Article 164(4) of the Constitution of India," the petition reads..The petitioner claims that a different kind of virus has afflicted our political space, which surreptitiously causes the downfall of legitimately elected state governments. This happens with unscrupulous legislators "resigning from the ruling party and then joining hands with the principal opposition party under influence or due to extraneous reasons.”.It is further stated:"Several acts of omission on the part of the Hon’ble Speaker in tandem with persons holding other constitutional posts in the State of Madhya Pradesh, who are solemnly vested with the duty to implement the democratic scheme of the Constitution, are grossly violative of the provisions of the Constitution and in fact, their conduct, which openly seeks to encourage horse-trading and throws the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India to the wind, needs to be strongly deprecated.".It is averred that once disqualified, these 14 persons currently holding ministerial positions in the Madhya Pradesh Council of Ministers would not even be able to contest the by-elections to be held for the seats vacated by them.To ensure that they do not face such constitutional difficulties, the decision on their disqualification has been deliberately been kept pending inordinately by the Speaker. This conduct of the Speaker needs to be looked into by the Court, the petitioner prays..Bhargava had earlier approached the Supreme Court, when a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had declined to entertain the plea. She was asked to approach the Madhya Pradesh High Court..Supreme Court turns down plea against appointment of 14 Madhya Pradesh non-legislators as ministers