Supreme Court seeks Bihar minister’s record of appointment & nomination as MLC

With Nitish Kumar stepping down as CM on April 15, the council of ministers was dissolved; Samrat Choudhary’s council, constituted on May 7, included Prakash

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought records from the Bihar government relating to the appointment of Deepak Prakash, who was not a member of the assembly, as a minister in Nov last year, his re-induction into the cabinet in May and his recent hurried nomination as an MLC allegedly to skirt around the six-month deadline within which such a minister must get elected to the House.A PIL has challenged his continuance as minister after the expiry of the six-month deadline within which a person, who is not a member of the assembly or legislative council, must get elected as a member of either house.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, for the Bihar government, told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi, and V Mohana that the minister has since been nominated as an MLC by the governor; hence, his continuance was not unconstitutional.However, the petitioner, relying on the SC’s 2001 judgment in the SR Chaudhari case, which had categorically stated that the six-month deadline was non-negotiable, said the six-month deadline expired on May 20. With Nitish Kumar stepping down as CM on April 15, the council of ministers was dissolved. The new council of ministers was constituted under Samrat Choudhary on May 7, which included Prakash. The bench asked the Bihar government to place on record all documents relating to the appointment of Prakash in the first instance, his re-induction and subsequent nomination as MLC.

In its 2001 judgment by a three-judge bench, SC had ruled, “Permitting a non-legislator minister to be re-appointed, without getting elected within the period prescribed by Article 164(4) (six months), would amount to ignoring the electorate in having its say as to who should represent it – a position which is wholly unacceptable.”The seductive temptations to cling to office regardless of constitutional restraint must be totally eschewed. Will of the people cannot be permitted to be subordinated to political expediency of the prime minister or the chief minister as the case may be, to have in his cabinet a non-legislator as a minister for an indefinite period by repeated re-appointments without the individual seeking popular mandate of the electorate.”The SC added, “Chief ministers or governors must… not sacrifice either political responsibility or parliamentary conventions at the altar of political expediency.”