HC serves notice to minister on office of profit issue

Uttarakhand High Court today served a notice to state agriculture minister Harak Singh Rawat on a petition challenging his eligibility as an MLA on the grounds of occupying offices of profit.
The notice was served to Rawat by a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Sarvesh Gupta on a petition filed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Bhatt.
The petition seeks Rawat's disqualification from the Assembly on grounds of occupying offices of profit despite being a member of the House and also challenges legality of a subsequent ordinance dropping the posts held by the minister from the ambit of offices of profit.

In spite of being a legislator and a cabinet minister, Rawat chaired Uttarakhand Seed and Terai Development Corporation and Uttarakhand Poorva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited until early this year, when opposition BJP raised the issue in the Assembly questioning its legality.
Vociferous protests by the opposition over the issue in March prompted the state government to promulgate an ordinance dropping the offices held by the minister from the ambit of profit with retrospective effect.
Rawat resigned from the chairmanship of the corporations in the wake of the promulgation of the ordinance.