Petition in HC for removal of convicted UP minister

Social activist Nutan Thakur today filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court seeking removal of Uttar Pradesh Minister Kailash Chaurasia, who was recently convicted in a 20-year-old case, even as BJP demanded his immediate sacking.
The petition filed before the Lucknow bench of the High Court through her counsel Ashok Pande said that after the Supreme Court had declared section 8(4) of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 as ultra vires, MLAs and MPs convicted for a period of more than two years get immediately disqualified under section 8(3) of the Act.
Similarly, the Supreme Court had made it clear in B R Kapoor vs State of Tamil Nadu that a person who is not eligible to become a legislator under the RP Act cannot remain a minister, she said in the petition.

"With these legal provisions, Chaurasia is not qualified to be a minister the moment he was awarded three years' imprisonment by a Mirzapur court but Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is himself defending him and this has forced me to file this petition," she said.
The demand for Chaurasia's removal grew louder with Opposition BJP seeking immediate dismissal of the Minister of State.
State BJP spokesman Manoj Mishra alleged that despite the court verdict, the Chief Minister was not sacking Chaurasia and this amounts to insult of the judiciary.
Chief Judicial Magistrate of Mirzapur Rajesh Bharadwaj had sentenced the minister in connection with a case registered against him by a postman who had alleged that he had misbehaved with him.

Chaurasia was sentenced to three years' jail, but was subsequently released by the court on bail and personal bond.