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On Monday a petition has been filed before Calcutta High Court praying for issuance of writ in the nature of Quo Warranto against Mr. Ashok Kumar Deb, Chairman of West Bengal Bar Council, as to under what authority of law he was chosen as the Member of State Legislative Assembly and is continuing so in spite of being disqualified to be chosen for the reason that he was holding the office of profit in the form of chairman of the bar council of West Bengal on the date of filing the nomination.

The petitioner Advocate Sri Shankha Shubhra Mukherjee has also prayed that in the light of the given provision of law, the election of Mr. Ashok Kumar Deb as MLA and his participation in the proceeding of the assembly is illegal and so the all payments made to him either as pay or as allowance is liable to be recovered from him and he is liable to pay the penalty of Rs. 500/- per day for attending the Assembly sessions.

Sri Ashok Kumar Deb is an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Budge Budge Constituency of Kolkata. At the time of filing of nomination for the office of membership of state legislature and on date his election to office, he was holding the office of the Chairman of the West Bengal Bar Council, which is an office created under the provisions of Section 3 of the Advocate Act 1961.

The petitioner has raised the above contention in the light of Article 102(1) and Article 191(1) of the Constitution which disqualifies a holder of an office of profit from being chosen as or from being, a Member of Parliament and member of state legislature.

The petitioner has further stated that with his actions, the respondent has defeated the sole purpose of incorporation of these article as the essence of disqualification under the office of profit law is that if legislators hold an "office of profit" under the Government, they might be susceptible to Government influence, and may not discharge their Constitutional mandate fairly.

The petitioner has relied his arguments upon several precedents such as Shivamurthy Swami v. Veerabhadrappa Veerappa, AIR 1971(3)SCC 870 and Shibhu Soren v. Dayanand Sahay AIR 2001 SC 2583 to establish that Mr. Deb’s election as MLA was illegal as he was holding an office of profit while filing for his nomination.  

Recently a letter has also been written to the Attorney general of India regarding Mr. Deb’s misuse of his office for his personal political profits and his attempt to disgrace Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court alleging that his such actions without any basis were an attempt to silence the discharge of an independent judiciary.