The Patna High Court’s notice to a dozen odd MlCs asking them why their nomination to the legislative Council not be cancelled for violation of norms in their nomination by the Governor, has caused concern not only to these legislators but also the Government. At least one the 12 MlCs, Rajiv Ranjan Singh lalan, is a Minister.
The division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmad Ansari issued notice to all these MlCs seeking their replies and fixed March 8 for next hearing. The seats against which they had been nominated in 2014 were supposed to be filled by eminent personalities from the field of art, literature, science, social service, cooperative movement etc. The nominations, under Section 169 of the Constitution, are made by the Governor at the recommendation of the State Government. Their strength is fixed at one sixth of the total strength of the Upper House.
A PIl had been filed by Nagrik Adhikar Manch convener and RTI activist Shiv Prakash Rai on June 22, 2015. Challenging their nominations, Rai said the seats were to be filled from the eminent persons from different categories like art, literature and social service but all the nominated persons came from politics. “Only the politicians were nominated in violation of the constitutional norms,” argued Rai’s counsel Deenu Kumar while additional advocate general lalit Kishore asserted that nominations were made as per the rules. He also said that after the notification for the nomination it could not be challenged in the court. Bihar legislative Council’s lawyer Kaushal Kumar Jha pleaded that the Governor nominated them after the decision of the Cabinet. Quoting a previous court order, he said the writ should be rejected.
The MlCs whose membership is under scanner are Samrat Chaudhary, Javed Iqbal ansari, Rajiv Ranjan Singh lalan, Shiv Prasan Sahu, Sanjay Kumar Singh, lalan Kumar Saraf and Ramchandra Bharti (all from social service field), Ram lakhan Ram Raman and Ram Bachan Rai (literature), Vijay Kumar Mishra and Rana Gangeshwar Singh (cooperative) and Ranbir Nandan (science). They had been picked up Nitish Kumar and notification was issued on May 2014. Of them the membership of Samrat Chaudhary has already been terminated for anti-party activities and a decision to terminate the membership of Shiv Prasan Sahu is pending with the Council chairman.
The petitioner had alleged that all the 12 nominations were made on a single day. On May 22, 2014 the Cabinet authorised the CM to select persons for their nomination as MlCs and the next day the names were forwarded to the Governor who on May 24 notification was issued making them MlCs for six year tenure up to 2020. It is alleged that there was no transparency of executive business of the legislature was also ignored.
