The Centre and the UP government has been directed by the Allahabad High Court to file their response on a plea seeking disqualification of the state CM Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya for not vacating their parliamentary posts.

Earlier, a notice was issued to the country’s top law officer, the Attorney General by the Lucknow bench of the High Court, following which today additional Solicitor General Ashok Mehta and UP Advocate General Raghvendra Singh appeared in the court.

To decide on the matter, the court asked them to file a counter-affidavit. A division bench comprising Justices Sudhir Agrawal and Virendra Kumar have passed the order, while  Sanjai Sharma filed the plea. The petitioner cited the Constitution to say that a parliamentarian cannot become a minister in the state government.

Apart from setting aside the appointment of Adityanath as the CM and Maurya as deputy chief minister, Sharma demanded that their parliamentary seats should be declared vacant. Wile Adityanath is a member of the Lok Sabha from Gorakhpur, Maurya represents Phulpur in the Lower House of Parliament.

Sharma also challenged the constitutionality of section 3(A) of the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act. The court issued him notice to him, since the constitutionality of a central act cannot be tested without hearing the Attorney General.

SUPRAJA