New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday issued notices on a plea challenging the reappointment of Deepak Prakash as Bihar's panchayati raj minister without getting elected as a member of the legislature.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and justice V Mohana issued notice to Bihar government, Prakash and the Election Commission of India on a plea by activist Rakesh Kumar Singh.The plea urges SC to direct Prakash to explain the legal and constitutional basis on which he continues to hold the office of Bihar's panchayati raj minister.The plea also seeks declaration that Prakash's reappointment on May 7 and his continuance in office are unconstitutional, illegal and contrary to Article 164(4) of the Constitution.The said Article allows a non-legislator to be appointed as a minister only as a temporary exception and requires such a person to secure membership of the state legislature within six consecutive months. Failing this, the minister must cease to hold office.According to the plea, Prakash, a leader of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), was first sworn in as panchayati raj minister in November in the Nitish Kumar-led government despite not being an elected member of either the Bihar assembly or the legislative council.The plea states that the six-month constitutional clock under Article 164(4) began running from that date and was set to expire around May 19 this year.The political situation, however, changed in April when Kumar resigned and the council of ministers was dissolved. Samrat Choudhary was subsequently sworn in as the CM in April. During a 22-day interregnum, Prakash held no ministerial office.The challenge, therefore, arises from Prakash's reappointment as panchayati raj minister on May 7 in the Choudhary Cabinet, even though he has not secured election to either House of the Bihar legislature. The petition contends that the government cannot bypass the constitutional limit by breaking up a minister's tenure and reappointing the same person after a brief gap.Such an exercise amounts to a colourable exercise of constitutional power designed to achieve indirectly what cannot be done directly, the plea reads.