New Delhi (ILNS): A petition before the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has claimed that the appointment of 14 non-MLAs as ministers of the state, in the absence of any extraordinary or rare circumstances, is contrary to the Articles 163 and 164 of the Constitution of India. The bench has issued notices to the state Governor, Chief Minister, state Assembly Speaker, the Election Commission of India and 16 others regarding this.
The notices were was issued by the division bench of Chief Justice (acting) Sanjay Yadav and Justice Rajeev Kumar Dubey. The petition was filed by Chhindwara based lawyer Aradhna Bhargav.
Advocate Satish Talekar, appearing for the petitioner submitted that never in the history of any state government or Central government, have 14 ministers, who were not legislators during swearing-in, been appointed as ministers.
The Petitioner has further stated that the Speaker has favoured the government by keeping pending the decision on disqualification of the MLAs which should also be examined by the Court.
The next hearing is on December 14.
The 14 ministers are former MLAs, who had resigned from the Congress earlier this year and joined the BJP. This resulted to the collapse of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government.