The move immediately set Suraj Bhan, who is the officiating Governor of the state, once again on a collision course with Rabri Devi's Rashtriya Janata Dal Government. ``It smacks of political vendetta. The action seems to have been taken under pressure from the Samata Party in a bid to humiliate Rakesh's father Shakuni Chaudhary, who quit the Samata Party and joined the RJD just before Lok Sabha elections,'' RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav told reporters this afternoon.

Constitutional experts feel that the Samrat's case has opened up a debate on the need to amend the Constitution. While there is a minimum age, 25, to become an MP or an MLA, there is no such eligibility criterion for a minister. For, a person can become a minister without becoming a memberof Parliament or the Legislative Assembly.

Samrat was inducted into the Rabri Devi ministry on May 19 earlier this year, soon after his mother, along with some other Samata Party legislators, switched their allegiance to the RJD. His father Shakuni followed later.Oblivious of this development, Samrat celebrated his 31st birthday today. He claimed he had no information of his dismissal. And that he continued to discharge his duties. The Governor had earlier indicated that the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) A K Basu, after conducting an inquiry, had concluded that Samrat Chaudhary's claims regarding his age were contradictory. According to a certificate given by his school, he is 31. The voters' list showed he was 24, while his ``horoscope'' put his age at 26. In 1995, Samrat's lawyer had informed a district court in Monghyr that his client's age was 16 (which makes his present age 20). His elder brother, who is a student of engineering at Ranchi, mentiones his age as 22.

In view of these conflictingclaims, the Samata Party urged the then Governor, Justice B M Lal, to dismiss Rakesh as he was below 25. On July 17, the Governor directed the CEO to inquire into the case.

In his affidavit, Samata Party spokesman P K Sinha claimed that Samrat had taken the matriculation examination in 1996. According to the documents available with the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), Samrat Chaudhary alias Samrat Chandra Maurya's date of birth is May 1, 1981.

The CEO took the BSEB document to be correct. Samrat's elder brother was born in 1979. There are documents to prove this. The Bihar Government always treats the metriculation certificate as the final proof of age in all matters.

While announcing this decision, Suraj Bhan said that he had simultaneously directed the State Government to institute ``a case of forgery, misrepresentation, false declaration and fraud'' against Rakesh.

The Governor also said that he had ordered the recovery of the entire amount of money collected by Samrat as salary andallowances during his tenure. ``His decisions and actions during this period will also be reviewed,'' he observed. But Laloo saw in this action a deliberate attempt to embarrass the Rabri Devi Government. ``Whether a person is fit to be a minister or not has to be decided by the court of law and not by the Governor,'' he said.

``There are set norms. In a democracy, the voters' list, in which Rakesh is shown to be above 25, has the validity to justify the age of a minister," he said. Chief Minister Rabri Devi, reacting to the development, said she had sought documents on which the decision was based and would then seek legal opinion.