SC reserves order, petition challenges Mayawati's appointment

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a petition challenging the appointment of UP Chief Minister Mayawati and her cabinet minister Satish Chandra Mishra on the ground that the duo were sitting MPs and hence should not have contested the assembly elections without vacating their Parliamentary seats.

A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and PP Naolekar while reserving its verdict said it would pass a 'reasoned order', after the petitioner, Ashok Pandey who is an advocate pleaded that the matter be referred to a larger bench.

Questioning the practice of MPs contesting Assembly elections, the petitioner said it may have serious repercussions on the country's polity and recalled the defeat of the Vajpayee Government by a single vote, after the then Orissa Chief Minister Girdhar Gomango participated in the no-confidence motion.

Gomango's participation in the no-confidence motion had at that time generated considerable debate on the morality of a person being simultaneously a Member of both Parliament and State Legislature and participate in the no-confidence motion.

Pandey, who is also the president of the Hindu Personal Law Board, claimed that under the Constitutional provisions an MP has to resign his seat before getting elected to the State legislature.