Samajwadi Party MLC moves HC after being stripped of LoP status

Samajwadi Party leader and MLC Lal Bihari Yadav on Monday moved the Allahabad High Court challenging the notification issued by the principal secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council derecognising him as the Leader of Opposition in the House. When the matter came up for hearing before the Lucknow bench, it asked the petitioner's counsel to hand over a copy of the petition to the counsel for the Legislative Council Lalit Shukla.

The bench of justices A R Masoodi and NK Jauhri fixed July 20 as the date for hearing the plea.

The court asked the petitioner's lawyer KK Pal and Council's lawyer Shukla to place the relevant legal provisions and case laws before it at the next hearing.


It was alleged in the petition that Yadav was elected an MLC in 2020 and on May 27, 2020 he was designated as the Leader of Opposition.

But UP Legislative Council secretariat derecognised him as the Leader of Opposition on July 7 as Samajwadi Party's strength in the council had fallen short of 10 - the minimum for the largest opposition party to get the post.

The petitioner pleaded that the decision of the principal secretary was illegal and arbitrary.

Currently, the BJP has 72 members in the Upper House of the Uttar Pradesh legislature, while Samajwadi Party has nine. The Congress has no member in the House. "On July 7, the number of Samajwadi Party members in the Council was reduced to nine, which is one less than the required number of 10 leaders for getting the status of the main opposition.

"Thus, Lal Bihari Yadav's recognition as Leader of Opposition is being ended by the chairman with immediate effect. He continues to remain the leader of the Samajwadi Party in the Council," a statement issued by the Council had said.