Supreme Court turns down plea against appointment of 14 Madhya Pradesh non-legislators as ministers

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising CJI SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian declined to entertain a petition challenging the appointment of the 14 non-legislators as Ministers in Madhya Pradesh as being a "gross violation of Article 164 and the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution"..Petition said Article 164 permits such appointments only in exceptional circumstances. "Who decides whether or not there are exceptional circumstances," said Supreme Court while declining to interfere.The top court has, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach High Court. .The petition by Aradhna Bhargava, filed through Advocate on Record Vipin Nair, 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 petition reads,.“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 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.”.The appointment of the 14 ministers has been made even as a decision on their disqualification has been kept pending for over five months by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the plea points out. Thus, this “course of action adopted is to solely overcome the strict constitutional scrutiny imposed by the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India,” the plea states.."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."Plea filed in Supreme Court.The petitioner avers 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.