Opinion A chief minister without a House seat: How SC settled the law
Article 164(4) of the Constitution allows a person to be appointed as a minister for up to six months without being a member of the legislature, provided they secure membership within that period.
(Left to right) In January 1968, Satish Prasad Singh stayed CM of Bihar for five days before making way for B P Mandal. (Express Archive) Last week, a Wardha-based lawyer, Harshvardhan Shobha Babarao Godghate, wrote to Maharashtra Governor Acharya Devvrat, questioning the legality of NCP leader Sunetra Pawar taking oath as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister since she is neither an elected Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) nor a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC). She was not even a Cabinet minister when the oath was administered to her, he wrote.
This discomfort with unelected executives has a long history in India, shaped by the political instability of the late 1960s. However, the legal question was settled long ago — first by Article 164(4) of the Constitution, which permits such appointments for a limited period, and later by a 1971 Supreme Court verdict that upheld the appointment of a Uttar Pradesh chief minister on this basis.
Article 164(4) of the Constitution, allows a person to be appointed as a minister for up to six months without being a member of the legislature, provided they secure membership within that period.
But it wasn’t until the late 1960s — a period marked by a weakening of the Congress and the resultant fractured mandates — that Article 164(4) was tested in political practice, first in Bihar and then in Uttar Pradesh, before the Supreme Court stepped in to settle the legal position.
After the 1967 elections, Bihar produced its first non-Congress government under the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD), a loose coalition of socialists, Jana Sangh members, and other anti-Congress forces. Mahamaya Prasad Sinha, an MLA of the Jan Kranti Dal, became the Chief Minister. But amid disagreements within and a split in the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP), the SVD government fell, with Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal, a prominent OBC leader, who had formed a separate Shoshit Dal, forming the government with Congress support.
The SVD split forced CM Sinha to resign in January 1968 and the Congress backed Mandal for the CM post. However, there was a hurdle: Mandal was not a member of either House of the Bihar legislature. Aided by the Congress, an ingenious workaround was arrived at.
On January 28, 1968, Mandal’s associate Satish Prasad Singh, then 37, was sworn in as Chief Minister. Singh, who had been elected from Parbatta Assembly seat on an SSP ticket in 1967, thus became Bihar’s first OBC Chief Minister. However, two days later, the new CM facilitated Mandal to be nominated to the Legislative Council, after which he resigned. Singh was therefore CM for a deliberately short stint of five days.
Given that Article 164(4) was already in place, there was no bar, at least in constitutional terms, on Mandal taking over as CM, but the provision had never been tested. At least not until a few years later, in Uttar Pradesh.
By 1969-70, a weakened Congress had split into the Congress (O) and Indira Gandhi’s Congress (R). In UP, Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD) government, formed with Indira Gandhi’s Congress (R) support, collapsed when BKD MPs voted against her privy purses abolition Bill in Parliament. Charan Singh resigned on October 1, 1970, and President’s Rule was imposed.
When President’s Rule was lifted, a new coalition with BKD, Jana Sangh, Congress (O) and other smaller groups took shape. On October 18, 1970, Tribhuvan Narain Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress (O), was sworn in as UP’s sixth Chief Minister.
But the government was visibly fragile, and the Congress (R) snapped at its heels. Narain Dutt Tiwari of the Congress (R) led the attack, questioning Singh’s legitimacy as House leader. Speaker A R Kher ruled in Singh’s favour the next day. Outside the Assembly, Har Sharan Verma, a Lucknow resident, petitioned the Allahabad High Court on November 4, 1970, arguing Singh’s appointment violated constitutional provisions since he was neither an MLA nor an MLC. However, the High Court dismissed his plea, prompting Verma to move the Supreme Court.
On March 16, 1971, the Supreme Court relied on Article 164(4) and ruled that a person can be appointed Chief Minister without being an MLA or MLC; that Article 164(4) applies to Chief Ministers; and that such an appointment is valid for up to six months.
The judgment was a victory for Singh, but it didn’t help him stay on in the chair for long.
In early 1971, to comply with Article 164(4), Singh contested the bypoll from Maniram Assembly (now renamed as Gorakhour Urban) seat, but lost, making his resignation imminent.
Days later, on March 30, 1971, when the UP Assembly was discussing the Motion of Thanks on the Governor’s address, his government lost the mandate on amendments moved by N D Tiwari. Singh resigned and returned to Rajya Sabha, whose membership he had retained.
Singh’s case, thus, paved the way for several other CMs to take oath without being members of either Houses of the state legislature.
The writer is Senior Associate Editor, The Indian Express
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