The Supreme Court today reserved its judgment on a petition challenging the appointment of BSP Chief Mayawati as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Satish Chandra Mishra as a Minister in the Cabinet.While reserving its decision, the vacation Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P P Naolekar said it would pass a “reasoned order”, even though the advocate-petitioner, Ashok Pandey sought that since the matter raised a significant Constitutional question, it should be referred to a larger Bench. Since both the respondents were sitting members of Rajya Sabha, they could not hold ministerial offices, he argued.Pandey, who is also the president of the Hindu Personal Law Board, claimed that under Constitutional provisions, an MP has to resign his seat before getting elected to the state legislature. Quoting Article 164 (4) of the Constitution, the petition stated even a non-member of the Legislative Assembly gets elected to the Assembly within a six months from the date of appointment. Since no such provision was made for an MP under the said Article, an inference has to be drawn that a MP has to resign before contesting the Assembly elections, it added.However, counsel for the CM, Shail Kumar Chaturvedi contended that there was nothing wrong in Mayawati becoming the Chief Minister since she was a leader of the majority party also.
