The Allahabad Excessive Courtroom immediately dismissed a Public Curiosity Litigation (PIL) plea filed earlier than it in 2017, which challenged the legality of the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister and Keshav Prasad Maurya as Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Rajeev Bharti noticed that there’s nothing within the Structure which prohibits the appointment of an individual who’s already a Member of Parliament as Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister of a State.
The HC held that the workplace of a Member of Parliament is neither a Constitutional Submit (such because the President or Vice-President) nor a put up held underneath the federal government.
Thus, it opined that holding the place of CM or Deputy CM concurrently, topic to the situations of Article 164(4), doesn’t violate the doctrine of separation of powers.
The HC was coping with a PIL filed by Sanjay Sharma in 2017, in search of a declaration that the appointments of Respondent Nos. 5 and 6 (Yogi Adityanath and Keshav Prasad Maurya) be declared null and void with impact from March 19, 2017.
The first rivalry was that each the respondents had been sitting Members of Parliament once they had been sworn in because the CM and Dy CM of the state and so they resigned from the Lok Sabha solely in September 2017.
Excessive Courtroom’s observations
On the outset, the HC famous that the reduction in search of to declare their seats vacant or to query their authority (quo warranto) had change into ‘infructuous’ as a result of they’d accomplished their tenure and had been re-elected in 2022. Nonetheless, the Courtroom proceeded to adjudicate the authorized validity of the preliminary 2017 appointment to settle the query of regulation.
The HC rejected the petitioner’s argument that an MP holds an “workplace of revenue” underneath the federal government, which might disqualify them underneath Article 191(1)(a). The Bench clarified that disqualification underneath Article 191 applies provided that an individual holds an workplace under the Authorities of India or the State.
The Courtroom held {that a} Member of Parliament has an “workplace of election” to boost the voice of the individuals and does not maintain an workplace underneath the Authorities. Subsequently, the disqualification provisions of Article 191 weren’t attracted in the primary place.
Referring to the Supreme Courtroom’s judgment in Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India (2019), the bench reiterated that legislators can’t be styled as full-time salaried staff. Their standing is sui generis (distinctive).
It added that the mere incontrovertible fact that MPs obtain salaries or allowances doesn’t create an employer-employee relationship with the federal government.
“They occupy a particular place as long as the Home shouldn’t be dissolved,” the court docket famous because it emphasised that an MP doesn’t operate on the pleasure of the President or Governor.
The petitioner, represented by Advocate Chandra Bhushan Pandey, argued that allowing an MP, who’s a member of the Union Legislature, to carry the manager workplace of Chief Minister violates the “implied restrictions” of the Structure and the doctrine of separation of powers.
The Courtroom, nonetheless, termed this rivalry ‘preposterous’ and “constitutionally fallacious”. The bench identified that underneath the Indian constitutional scheme, each Minister should finally change into a member of the Legislature.
“If this rivalry is accepted that no Member of Legislature needs to be appointed as a Minister as a result of as member of the Legislature he’s a part of the Legislative wing and as Chief Minister/ Deputy Chief Minister he turns into a part of the govt, then no minister might be appointed,” the Courtroom reasoned.
The Bench additional famous a pointy distinction between a “Constitutional Physique” (comparable to Parliament) and a “Constitutional Workplace”. It clarified that Constitutional Workplaces are particular excessive places of work, such because the President, Vice President, Speaker or Chief Election Commissioner.
It added {that a} seat within the Parliament doesn’t equate to holding a constitutional put up and subsequently, the petitioner’s analogy concerning the Vice-President ceasing to be Chairman of the Council of States upon turning into President was deemed ‘misplaced’ and with out constitutional foundation.
Importantly, the petitioner had additionally challenged the vires of Part 3(a) of the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, which declares that the workplace of a Minister shall not disqualify the holder from being a Member of Parliament.
The petitioner argued that this provision contravened the spirit of Article 102(1)(a).
Nonetheless, the bench rejected this rivalry, because it famous that the Rationalization to Article 102 of the Structure (amended in 1985) explicitly clarifies that an individual shall not be deemed to carry an workplace of revenue by purpose solely that he’s a Minister.
“The Structure itself having excluded the workplace of Minister of a State which contains Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister from the purview of operation and utility of Article 102…we fail to grasp as to how such a problem to Part 3(a) of the Act, 1959 might be raised and sustained,” the Bench remarked.
The Courtroom additionally famous that Adityanath and Maurya had taken their oath on March 19, 2017; they had been elected to the Legislative Council on September 8, 2017 and so they resigned from Parliament on September 21, 2017.
The Bench noticed that the Prohibition of Simultaneous Membership Guidelines, 1950, weren’t relevant as a result of the respondents resigned voluntarily underneath Article 101(3)(b) relatively than holding onto each seats indefinitely.
“They envisage a contingency the place an individual has been concurrently holding a seat in the Parliament and in a home of legislature of a State specified within the 1st Schedule to the Structure of India and if he doesn’t vacate his seat within the State Legislature, then, his seat within the Parliament will fall vacant, whereas, within the case at hand the other occasion nos. 5 and 6 resigned from their membership of parliament itself by way of Article 101(3)(b) of the Structure on 21.09.2017, subsequently, Guidelines 2 and three of the Guidelines, 1950 made by the President underneath Article 101(2) and Article 190(2) of the Structure have no utility to the case at hand”, the Courtroom noticed.
Thus, the HC concluded that the Governor’s discretion was exercised inside constitutional bounds and it dismissed the petition, discovering “no advantage” within the claims.
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