SHANKARLAL BAJORIA Vs. UNION OF INDIA (UOI)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for a Rule Nisi for Writs, orders and directions in the nature of Quo Warranto and Mandamus and other appropriate orders.

(2.) The Petitioners claim to be voters whose names have been entered in the electoral roll Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies of West Bengal. They further claim to be vitally interested in exercising their rights of franchise and also in the due constitution of Parliament and State Legislative Assembly and to see that the General Election as announced by Notification dated January 13, 1967, is carried out according to the provisions of the Constitution. The Respondents in this application include the Prime Minister of India W and other Ministers of the Government of India and also the Chief Minister, West Bengal and the other Ministers of the Government of West Bengal. The Petitioners case as laid in the petition is that Central and State Ministers are entitled to and are paid salaries B various allowances. According to the Petitioners Sec. 3 of the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, which purports Remove the bar of disqualification, is ultra vires Article 102 and Article (sic) with Article 75(6) of the Constitution, inasmuch as the said Act (sic) discrimination treating the Ministers as a class distinct 3 Pr other Government employees, in the matter of holding offices

(3.) It is next alleged that the Respondents Nos. 6 to 19 who are oisters of the Central Government are disqualified for being (sic) and for being Members of the House of the People, as the (sic) within the meaning of Clause (1) of Article 102 of the Constitution is a disqualification which attaches to the said Respondents, when they and each of them, become candidates for General Election the meaning of Sec. 79(b) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The said Respondents, it is further alleged, claim to have been duly nominated as candidates at the General Election and they have announced that they are candidates for election. The disqualification imposed by Article 102(1)(a) of the Constitution, it is alleged, is a subsisting disqualification, as no notification has been published under Sec. 10 of the Salaries and Allowances of Ministers Act, 1952. The same charge has been made about Respondents Nos. 20 to 35 who are Ministers of the Government of West Bengal.